“I’d rather sell than grow the business” - What it’s like running one of Scotland’s most acclaimed bakeries

When Darcie Maher opened Lannan Bakery in Stockbridge less than three years ago, she could little have imagined that she’d end up expanding the premises, opening a pantry and taking on over 30 staff in the space of two years.

“I was only 23 when I got the keys,” said Ms Maher, speaking on a recent episode of our podcast Scran. “I hadn’t worked as a manager before and I wasn’t prepared for it. It was really difficult. But now I have an incredible team of managers who I manage and they manage the rest of the staff. A lot of the people who work here are older than me so it's interesting.”

Ms Maher’s bakery’s success is down to her picture perfect bakes (she’s a trained chef but self-taught baker), as well as a strong social media presence but this is something that she said is a by-product of the business. “ Social media is an interesting part of running Lannan and it's obviously incredible, but it's not something that we have put that much time into. I think it's definitely a byproduct of what we do. It was never really the intention (to become big on social media). People call us a TikTok Bakery and a social media bakery, but I don't have TikTok and we're definitely a bakery first and foremost.”

The rapid success - in which social media has played a huge part - has led to people visiting Lannan from all over Scotland and the world. When we visited in late January there was a queue out the door, as is now to be expected, and the majority of the customers were tourists. While Ms Maher is grateful for how busy the bakery gets, it has come with its own challenges. Last year, after complaints from the local community, Ms Maher hired a queue warden to ensure those waiting to buy her products were staying in line and not blocking the entire pavement.

The queue has become a huge part of Ms Maher’s job, about 70 per cent she said is trying to manage the people who come every day. “We have no control over what happens in the queue,” she said: “We have spoken to the council, to the police, we've had a consultant try to help us with how to manage it. And at the end of the day, they're not our customers till they're through our door. We can't police them. They're pedestrians, they're standing on a pavement. We have absolutely no legal obligation to do anything about it. We do a lot.

“We've had queue wardens out there in the past. We've sort of tried everything, but you know, it's the general public, so there's very little we can do about it. It's definitely the hardest part about running the bakery.

“Had we known how busy we would've been we would've probably chosen a different site where we were able to accommodate the amount of people who visit the bakery as I wish we could accommodate them a bit more.”

She explained what her original vision was, saying: “ I sort of imagined having a very small neighborhood bakery. I didn't expect people to travel so far to visit us, which is absolutely incredible. I am very grateful for how Lannan is now. But it definitely has come with its issues.I think probably one day I will open a bakery somewhere very small and somewhere very quiet so that it can be that sort of very steady neighborhood bakery that I'd always dreamed of. I have this idea in my head that maybe one day I'll completely come off social media, move away from the city, open a bakery and not really shout about it and just sort of sustain and nourish the local community.”

Lannan opened a pantry in late 2025 to sell provisions and is the spot for customers to pick-up bakery pre-orders - an expansion due to the demand. Ms Maher said of this: “ We have had to grow with the - I hate the word hype - but we've had to grow with it, which we didn't really want to do.

“We've doubled capacity in two and a half years, which has been really difficult. We went from three members of staff to now 35. It has been a huge adjustment, trying to keep up with the demand.”

As for opening another shop or even a franchise, Ms Maher said that’s definitely not on the cards. She said: “ Lannan has already grown more than I ever wanted it to and it already isn't really what I had imagined it would be. In terms of growing, I would sell it and let someone else grow it before I would grow it myself. I don't have the desire to take over the world or have a franchise of the bakery. I don't need or want for it to be any bigger than it already is, and I don't think I would be able to cope with it being much bigger.I want to go the other way and I want my life to be quieter and quieter.”

Despite being very busy, Lannan isn’t immune to the current economic pressures that all small businesses are facing just now. Ms Maher said: “Hospitality as a whole is going through a really terrible time and despite the fact we've got a queue, we're not exempt from that. If things don't change within the industry, we probably won't be here. There needs to be rates relief, also minimum wage is going up - we pay everyone way above minimum wage anyway - but it’s really difficult. The amount that we pay to HMRC a month just goes up and up. It’s unsustainable and there's no relief for small businesses.”

To listen to this full episode, search Scran wherever you get your podcasts