Walkers

Walker's Shortbread has been baking biscuits in Speyside, Scotland, for more than 125 years, and the company still belongs to the founder's family, now in its fifth generation. Classic all-butter shortbread is baked from just four ingredients – flour, butter, sugar and salt. The bakeries stand in the valley of the River Spey, an area also known for its whisky distilleries.

History

The bakery was opened in 1898 by 21-year-old Joseph Walker in the village of Torphins in Aberdeenshire; a loan of 50 pounds was enough to get him started. In 1920 he moved the bakery to Aberlour in Speyside, where the company is still based and where its original shop stood on the High Street. The site of the original shop is now marked by a stop on the local Aberlour Trails.

In 1975 the company built a new factory, and in the 1970s it began exporting its biscuits – at first to more than 60 countries. Today it bakes in three bakeries in Aberlour and two in nearby Elgin, and sells its products in more than 100 countries.

Did you know?

• Walker's holds a Royal Warrant from King Charles III for shortbread and oatcakes.
• According to the company history, the bakery stayed true to butter even during rationing in the Second World War.
• The tartan on the packaging is based on the Clan Grant tartan: blue recalls the River Spey, green the Speyside landscape, gold the generations of the family and red a passion for baking.
• In 2017 the company won Scottish Family Business of the Year, and in 2020 Bakery Exporter of the Year.

What we stock

We sell Walkers biscuits in 150 g packs: with chocolate chunks, with hazelnuts and chocolate, with sultanas and lemon peel, with caramel and pecans, with raspberries and white chocolate, with oats and cranberries and ginger. For cafés, hotels and offices there is a catering box of 200 butter biscuits of 11 g each.

The biscuits go well with coffee and tea, on the go and as a small gift. You can also crush all-butter shortbread for a cheesecake base or crumble it over ice cream or a fruit dessert; ginger biscuits pair nicely with stewed apple. The individually wrapped biscuits from the catering box are ideal with coffee at meetings, in hotel rooms or as a treat with an order in a café.