Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
World
David McLean

The Edinburgh factory that's made Wagon Wheels and Viscount biscuits for generations

Few Edinburgh businesses have taken the biscuit quite like Burton's down the generations.

Since opening in Sighthill in the 1950s, the conveyor belts have been running practically non-stop, producing all manner of sugary favourites from Rich Teas and Viscounts to Wagon Wheels and Edinburgh Shortbread.

The site is one of seven bakeries owned by the Burton's company in the UK, which makes a whopping 7.5 million biscuits every day.

And while technological advances continue to shrink its workforce, the Calder Road factory remains one of the largest employers of people in the Lothians and a lifeline for hundreds.

But the fast-paced nature of the job isn't for everyone, as Ian Keddie, a long-term former employee of Burton's in Sighthill, testifies.

Speaking to Edinburgh Live, Ian, who started in production level in 2000 before progressing to management at the factory, says the constant din, hot environment and speeding machinery caused many staff acute motion sickness that would take a few shifts to get used to.

He said: "When you first walk in the door, it's terrifying to be honest.

"For the whole eight hour shift the conveyors do not stop. It's a hard shift, it's hot, it's repetitive... mind-numbing.

"Then you look up and the women are doing it without even blinking; they're just talking away to each other, not even looking at their hands.

"You get bad motion sickness, with all the conveyor belts going in different directions. Sea sickness was quite a common condition for the first aiders.

"One minute you'd be looking at the conveyor belt and it would appear to stop moving - then the floor starts moving. You'd end up bumping into people... it's very strange."

Ian continued: "To be honest most people would last a couple of days, or they'd stay for 20 years - like myself.

"It's very much a Marmite place to work."

While you might expect Burton's to employ mostly Edinburgh folk, the factory's location near the City Bypass made it handy for commuters from the west.

Being an Edinburgh local, Ian, who now works in whisky bottle manufacturing, says he was very much in the minority during his time at the biscuit factory. Many workers in recent years also hail from Poland and Eastern Europe.

Ian said: "There could be 400 people on shift and most of the people didn't actually live in Edinburgh. They'd be coming from Whitburn, Bathgate, Fauldhouse, Shotts. I was actually in the minority, coming from Edinburgh.

"Nowadays, I'd say around 50 per cent of the workforce are Eastern European, and they've come in and worked and integrated really well."

While Burton's products are enjoyed throughout the UK and around the world, there are some packs of biscuits that don't make it much further than EH11.

Sign up to our Edinburgh Live nostalgia newsletters for more local history and heritage content straight to your inbox

Broken biscuits

The so-called 'broken biscuits', Ian says, were every bit as popular as the real deal.

He said: "You could go to the famous shop - you'd call it 'broken biscuits', but it's not really. It was that we'd just made too many, put too much chocolate on them, or forgot to put sugar in them.

"There's a little shop at the gatehouse that was making around £5,000 a week in takings, selling packs of 'broken biscuits' for a pound a pack."

Sadly, Burton's, like so many long-running UK manufacturers, employs far fewer people than in previous decades.

During Ian's time in Sighthill, advances in automation have resulted in almost half of the workforce being made redundant.

He said: "It's changing a lot. They can bring in one robot that would've once been done by say 15 or 16 people.

"They've now got a robot that can see the biscuit in the conveyor, pick it up and pack it.

"You could probably do away with around 80 per cent of the workforce if you invested in technology, to be honest."

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.