William Sword

William Sword is a pastry and bakery manufacturer based in Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire. It makes sweet and savoury pastry, pies, and chilled and frozen pastry products for butchers, pie makers, food manufacturers, and retailers.

Much of its pastry goes to butchers across Scotland and to other food businesses elsewhere in the UK, and its brands have included U-Bake and Sword Pastry. The company also owns The Scottish Soup Company, a chilled soup brand launched about ten years ago that now supplies supermarkets and wholesalers throughout Scotland.

William Sword set up the business in 1894 to supply communities around Airdrie. It began specialising in pastry in the 1950s and moved to its current bakery in Cumbernauld in 1969. After four generations of family ownership, the company moved to an employee ownership trust in 2026, giving its 85 staff a stake in the business, while brothers Douglas and David Sword stepped back into consultancy roles.