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Langford bakery owner isn’t retiring – he’s ready for a new adventure

Andrew Anglin spent 10 years delighting customers with his gregarious personality
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After running the Phipps Road COBS Bread for 10 years, Andrew Anglin said he is ready to take on a new adventure. (Jane Skrypnek/News Staff)

Every time a customer entered the Phipps Road COBS Bread in the last 10 years, owner Andrew Anglin made it his goal to send them out the door “with a little more spring in their step.”

To him, bakeries have the potential to be magical places.

“A child comes into a bakery and it’s wonderland,” Anglin said with palpable enthusiasm. “Their eyes are as big as saucers. You see their faces light up and there’s this sense of wonder.”

He and his staff loved to find every kind of excuse to celebrate customers – best smile of the day, a new baby, best hat of the day and best mask of the day. Whatever it was, the customer was sure to be sent home with a free goodie.

“We throw free scones at them like they’re slingshots,” Anglin said gleefully.

Owning COBS Bread has made Anglin feel “alive and integral” he said, but at 65 it was time to move on. Saturday (Oct. 31) was his last day.

“Running a COBS Bread is a little bit like riding a spirited horse,” Anglin said, explaining that the job consumed almost all of his time.

A big part of the COBS Bread business model is that they bake everything fresh daily, and anything left at the end of the day is donated. Anglin estimated that his location donated between $1,200 and $1,500 of bread every single day.

“It defines me in so many ways,” Anglin said. It was this fast-paced, altruistic business model that convinced him to take the job in the first place.

“Whatever my next steps are in life, altruism has to be part of that. You have to look for a larger cause,” he said. And Anglin has big dreams for his next steps.

His biggest dream is to start a bakery in a developing country and eventually develop it into a pre-med school. He explained that because the cost of producing bread is so low and the product is so widely appreciated, he thinks a bakery is the perfect model for a developing place. And, Anglin has a background in teaching sciences.

At his age, Anglin said “there’s enough wheels in your life. Put them together and make a vehicle.”

Anglin is also looking forward to reading more classical literature, developing his language skills, doing more crosswords and buying a boat.

He believes that by pursuing one’s passions, anyone can do great things.

“The world will rise to you and there will be sunshine on your back.”



About the Author: Jane Skrypnek

I'm a provincial reporter for Black Press Media after starting as a community reporter in Greater Victoria.
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