Wild Hearth Bakery has opened a long-awaited store in Comrie after operating solely as a wholesaler.
The firm has been operating as a successful wholesaler at nearby Cultybraggan Camp since 2017.
It has now opened a bakery on Drummond Street in the Perthshire village.
Founder John Castley told The Courier that opening the bakery alongside his wife Caroline has been his vision since he started the company.
He said: “It’s always been something that I’ve wanted to do.
“The camp as a premises to set up was a perfect way to start in a way, but it was also very difficult to start off just doing wholesale.
“I worked as a chef for five years before I began baking and my vision was always for the bakery, shop and potentially a cafe.
“The location at Cultybraggan, which is perfect in so many ways, wasn’t suitable for retail.
“We’d never get the footfall. It’s taken us seven years to be in a position to open a shop.
“It’s really exciting.
“It’s one of those things where the missing ingredient I feel in what we were doing is the community and the ability to meet and talk to our customers.
“We do a certain amount of talking to our wholesale customers, but not the people who eat our bread and pastries.”
Wild Hearth Bakery opens in Comrie
The enterprise carries out home deliveries, sells at farmers’ markets and supplies shops, restaurants and cafes.
Its clients include Michelin-star venues The Cellar in Anstruther and Fife Arms in Braemar.
The bakery has been a hit with customers, with its first two days of trade a sell-out.
“The first two days were Good Friday and Easter Saturday and we were mobbed, which was amazing,” John continued.
“We had sell-outs both days. In the week since, we’ve had people coming from Dundee, Dunblane and Falkirk just to come to the bakery and buy from us.
“In those three cases, there were people who had learned about the home delivery that we started during the pandemic.
“Our home deliveries were like a lifeline to a lot of people and they just have been getting them ever since.
“They really wanted to come and meet us and see the shop.
“I must say the local Comrie community too has turned out in force to support us which has been fabulous.”
‘I’m hoping it’s going to be a really good thing for Comrie’
John says that at farmers’ markets, Wild Hearth sells more bread than pastries.
But the pastries have been flying off the shelves in the shop.
John said: “The pastries are definitely very popular. Everything is made at the camp.
“The shop has planning permission as a shop but we don’t have planning to do cooking there.
“It’s a way for us to sell our stuff and add coffee. We’ve invested a lot to make sure we have the equipment to make great coffee.”
He added: “I’d love to have a cafe and I think we would provide a different offering.
“However, there just isn’t a premises. I would have loved to have had something slightly larger so we could have had a cafe but it’s not happening at the moment.
“Never say never, something might come up.
“We already know people are coming far and wide to visit us so I’m hoping it’s going to be a really good thing for Comrie.”
Conversation