Our Team

Island Bakery would be nothing without its fabulous team. There are about 40 of us working hard to bring Mull’s best biscuits to you. Everyone plays an essential part in ensuring a steady supply of biscuits from Tobermory to the world! Below are the people you might talk to if ringing us - but the people who do the real work are our fantastic squad of biscuiteers, mixing, baking and chocolate dipping.

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  Joe Reade (Taster-in-Chief)

  Joe moved to Mull from Somerset with his family at the tender age of 12. When he isn’t making sure that the biscuits are baking nicely, he likes nothing more than going on an ‘adventure’, either on his bike, or out on a leaky boat. You may also recognise him as the inspiration for the Pilsbury Dough Boy, and if you poke him in the tummy he lets out an involuntary giggle. A failed stand-up comedian with a long list of one-star reviews and more than one cease-and-desist order, he now amuses himself by writing nonesense about employees who can't stop him.

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  Dawn Reade

  Dawn grew up in Belfast, and bumped into Joe in Edinburgh where they were students. She allowed Joe to talk her into coming back to Mull with him to start the bakery, because she really likes cake. She looks after the bakery’s social media and marketing, as well as packaging design and generally making things look nice. She has the sort of Belfast accent that infers 'don't mess with me', and therefore we all behave in her presence. She's the real power behind the throne.

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  Lynn Peden

  Lynn is Dawn’s little sister and our General Manager. She uses her big brain to keep the bakery running, and act as back-up memory bank to Joe's addled head. Lynn is also an adventurer, having been known on one occasion to venture as far as Lochdon. She is currently fund raising for an expedition to Iona, but first needs to establish a base camp in Fionnphort with ample gin supplies. We are all scared of her. Like really. You should hear how she deals with cold-call electricity salespeople.

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  Cathy Mellor

  Cathy came to know Mull as a regular visitor for the annual Tour of Mull Car Rally that brings hundreds of visitors to drive noisy cars around the island every October. As well as knowing her Subarus from her Mini Coopers, she is also our Technical Manager, which means she has to eat biscuits every day to check they are as tasty as they should be. In the evenings she likes to play ukelele tunes in the local pub, where she is affectionately known as 'that bloody woman'.

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  Cat Danci

  Before joining us as Production Manager, Cat modelled for a mail order clothes company that specialised in flowery shirts for men without much hair. Joe spotted him whilst shopping for something to go with his receding hairline. Always willing to take on new responsibilities, Cat has adopted a rigorous daily regime of what he calls Organoleptic Quality Control Assessment (he eats lots of biscuits). Amazingly, he believed the nonsense on this page and applied for the job because he thought he'd be working with famous stage hypnotist Paul McKenna.

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  Fiona Aitali

  Fiona is the only person in the business who actually has official baking qualifications and is therefore responsible for many things, including the development of tasty new biccies. She is also our longest-standing employee, having started with us in 1994 making amazing cakes and baking tasty bread. She is pictured here holding her range of Sweet FA gluten-free biscuits high above Tobermory bay, whilst sitting in the crows nest of a pirate ship that she skippers on weekends.

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  Tom McGuire

  Tom is our Engineer Emeritus, but he's moved on to drive electric busses and left all his spanners behind. He has the funniest bio so we're keeping it here. He likes nothing more than to float on his back in Tobermory bay cracking open molluscs that he balances on his little round belly and hits with a stone. He brings a fresh one-liner to work every day, that he deploys to distract attention from his bright ginger hair. His bulging little black book of female friends has to be held shut with a ratchet strap.

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  Paul Peden

  Keeping things in the family, Paul is Lynn’s husband, and our delivery driver. Before taking up biscuit delivery, Paul had a successful career as a stage hypnotist that ended in unfortunate circumstances and a protracted legal battle with a lady from Dundee who can no longer eat anything apart from Marmalade. Now a writer of many self-help books (drafted whilst waiting in the ferry queue), you may be more familiar with his nom-de-plume Paul McKenna.