easyJet takes the biscuit – family bakers celebrate contract with UK’s largest airline

Family run bakers ‘Shortbread House of Edinburgh’ are taking their shortbread to new heights after winning a contract to sell the traditional biscuit onboard easyJet flights.

The UK’s largest airline is now stocking Shortbread House of Edinburgh on all flights across Europe, Russia and the Middle East – offering thousands of holidaymakers a taste of traditional Scottish fare each day.

Shortbread House of Edinburgh is led by husband and wife team Anthony and Fiona Laing - who still create the majority of their shortbread entirely by hand, using the traditional method used by Scottish housewives through the centuries. The bakery is currently producing 6,000 bars of shortbread every week for easyJet which are served up on flights across 34 countries.

Anthony Laing, whose family have been baking biscuits for four generations, said: “This is a really exciting time for Shortbread House of Edinburgh and we’re thrilled to work with easyJet to promote traditional, handmade shortbread.

“We started supplying easyJet in July and it’s been all hands on deck to ensure the first few weeks ran smoothly. We sold over three thousand packs in the first week and I feel very proud when I think about our shortbread flying the flag for Scotland across Europe and beyond.”

Alongside easyJet, Shortbread House of Edinburgh also supply to a number of major hotels such as Gleneagles and The Dorchester. They are hoping the millions of passengers who fly with easyJet each month will help attract new outlets for the bakery.

Anthony added: “Working with easyJet is a fantastic way to showcase our product across the world. Exports count for around 25% of our business at present, but this introduces us to new markets and we’ve already had interest from potential new clients who tried our shortbread onboard.”

Shortbread House of Edinburgh were approached by aviation retailers Gate Solutions in February on behalf of easyJet and within five months the shortbread was available onboard. Shortbread House of Edinburgh has created special packaging for Scotland’s largest airline, featuring kilted Scotsmen tossing the Caber.

Sharon Huetson, Inflight Manager for easyJet, said: “Shortbread House of Edinburgh are a welcome addition to easyJet’s inflight food offering providing customers with a tasty, quality product at a great price. As Scotland’s largest airline we were keen to showcase an iconic, local product and handmade shortbread has proved extremely popular with passengers across the network.

“We are working hard to dispel the myths about inflight food by carefully selecting quality products from the markets we serve. In addition to traditional Scottish shortbread we also have Wookey Hole cheddar crackers, Bonne Maman Financiers and Russian Standard vodka.”

Shortbread House of Edinburgh shortbread is available to buy now onboard easyJet flights for £1.50 via the inflight Boutique and Bistro: http://buyonboard.easyjet.com/