The Kandy Bar
Bakery chain from Scotland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Kandy Bar, also known as The Kandy Bar Bakery, is a Scottish bakery chain. It was founded in 1929 in Saltcoats, by the Stephen family. It specialises in sweet and savoury products such as Scotch pies, doughnuts, apple tart, and sausage rolls. The Kandy Bar has won multiple awards including the World Champion Scotch Pie three times in 2014, 2016, and 2024.
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Food |
| Founded | 1929 |
| Products |
|
| Owner | Stephen McAllister |
Number of employees | 89 |
| Website | facebook |
History
The Kandy Bar was founded in 1929 in Saltcoats,[1] by the Stephen family. Stephen McAllister father decided to set up a sweet shop that also sales scotch pies. The name Kandy Bar comes from the sweet shop Stephen’s father used to run and the name stuck despite Stephen reverting back to a more typical bakery offerings. Stephen McAllister has been the owner since 1991.[2] The Kandy Bar has 89 employees as of 2024[update].[3] It's located in Saltcoats, Kilwinning, Ardrossan, Stevenston, and West Kilbride.[4]
In 2019, The Kandy Bar was donating 10p for every doughnut sold to The Children's Trust charity for a week.[5] In 2025, they donated charity-branded cookies to Mary's Meals.[6]
Products
Products include Scotch pies,[7][8] doughnuts,[5] apple tart,[1] and sausage rolls.[9] In an interview in 2016, The Kandy Bar claimed to be producing 1,200 Scotch pies a day, with 1,600 on Saturdays. Shortly after winning the Scotch Pie World Champion title in 2016 there was a "natural surge of customers from far afield".[2]
Reception and awards
The Kandy Bar won the Scotch Pie Club Awards, being the overall winners in 2014 and 2016, and "Best Football Pie" in 2015.[2] They won the World Champion Scotch Pie three times, in 2014, 2016,[10][7] and 2024.[8] In 2014, The Kandy Bar also took a silver award for its apple tart and three bronze awards.[1].They also previously receiving a silver award for their scotch pie in 2018.[10] The Kandy Bar won the Scottish Baker Of The Year title in 2016 and 2017,[11] becoming the only baker to win this and the Championship in the same year.[10]
The Ardrossan Herald said "[its] brilliant reputation for freshly baked goodies and are popular with residents from North Ayrshire and beyond."[4]