Island Bakery Organics was the impulsive dream of husband and wife team, Joe and Dawn Reade. Having met at university, Dawn’s heart decided to follow Joe back to his island home (Ahhhh), with the plucky notion of setting up a top-notch bakery. It seemed the natural complement to his family’s dairy farm which already supplied the island with a steady supply of fresh milk and cheese, but perhaps not the most logical progression for a couple of cash-strapped geography graduates.

Working within an empty garage at the end of his brother’s house, The Island Bakery was in every sense a cottage industry. Naïve enthusiasm kept us going in the early years (as well as the World Service through long night-shifts) as we taught ourselves first how to bake and then how to run our first retail shop and delicatessen in Tobermory. The business blossomed, growing roughly in line with our waists.
The business of supplying fresh bread to such a scattered and inaccessible population was never going to be easy. From our bakery window we could see the ferry approaching the pier, and after a long night baking would frantically stuff the last hot loaves into their boxes before racing to the pier and up the gang plank. By a mixture of ferries and rickety vans, we delivered our cargo across Mull and to neighbouring islands.

After getting our bread into all the corners of the island that we could, we began to raise our horizons a little. We wanted to see if we could entice folk from further afield with something tasty and tempting. We knew from our deli that there weren’t many biscuits out there worth writing home about, which is why we proceeded to produce our own.
The result is the range of biscuits you see before you now, that we first began baking back in 2001. Over the intervening years we been lucky enough to pick up a number of reassuring pats on the back from various welcome sources including thoughtful foodies, hard to please editors and a healthy clutch of prestigious awards.
Best of all we can count on the swelling support of a loyal band of biscuit bon viveurs, who’ve played such a pivotal role keeping us so busy! If you've not yet savoured our wares, please don't deprive yourself any longer!