A Fife man living in Cyprus is giving fellow expats a taste of home with a new baking business.
Derek Blair, from Dunfermline, started Flour of Scotland with his partner Joanne Mcsheffrey, from Coventry, after lockdown was imposed on the island nation.
The pair are now doing a roaring trade supplying home bakes such as bridies, sausage rolls and pies.
The couple moved to Cyprus in December 2018 and have been living in the town of Peyia. Their first business foray on the island was going to be a Still Game-themed bar, but they decided against it during the planning stages as the red tape was proving too cumbersome.
Faced with more time at home on their hands as lockdown was implemented, Derek and Joanne decided to take to the kitchen and start a bakery company.
Since setting up in April they have moved from their own kitchen to rented commercial premises as demand has grown.
They now supply to shops, kiosks, petrol stations and a hospital, as well as offering home deliveries.
Derek said he had been blown away by the success.
He said: “It has surpassed our expectations. There is a high expat population here who are starving, for lack of a better term, for Scottish foods.
“People have been saying it is better than the big chains they remember from the UK.”
While Derek and Joanne had been planning on staying in Cyprus, the global pandemic meant any lingering thoughts of returning to the UK after their pub plans fell through were quickly dispelled.
Derek added: “To be honest, this has been the best place in the world to be during this.
“An extensive lockdown was announced early and there have been very few cases and deaths with Covid.
“Because everything was closed, it was a case of doing something or sitting and doing nothing. I am not good and sitting on my hands.
“One night Jo and I were talking about what we were going to do with ourselves for the foreseeable future. I said ‘why don’t we challenge ourselves to open up a brand new business during lockdown’.
“Then it hit us: everybody needs to eat. Let’s start an online bakery business.”
As a result of the success of Flour of Scotland’s first few months of trading, Derek and Joanne are hoping to find entrepreneurs in Britain to become franchisees as part of their plans to grow the business.
