Hit twice by the crisis - traditional bakery has to close nine branches
Created: 06/12/2022 13:08
By: Ines Baur
How much longer can bakeries handle this?
First it was the lockdown.
Now rising prices for raw materials, flour, gas and energy are causing problems for many bakeries.
(Iconic image) © Swen Pförtner/dpa
The craft is shrinking.
More and more traditional bakeries have to close shops because of too many crises.
Now it hits an old family business that has been selling bread and baked goods for 200 years.
Munich/Kassel – There were some winners and losers in the corona pandemic.
Large supermarkets and delivery services have experienced a real boom in some cases.
A customer in Frankfurt, for example, is said to have ordered more than 1,000 times from Lieferando.
At the same time, many smaller craft businesses, such as bakeries, suffered from the Corona lockdown.
Customers often did their shopping in one go so as not to be on the road longer than necessary.
They bought baked goods directly in the supermarket and saved themselves the extra trip to the bakery.
When the Ukraine war began in February, further problems arose for the handicraft businesses.
Raw materials such as conventional wheat became scarce and expensive.
Oil, gas and electricity prices have skyrocketed.
Traditional bakery has to close branches - "A piece of baking tradition is lost"
As a consequence of the crises, more and more bakeries have to close.
Like the city bakery Gatenbröcker.
The bakery chain has been in the Ruhr area for more than 200 years.
The employees greet their regular customers by name, according to the company's website.
"We are Pott - you too?" The company operates a total of 60 branches with 750 team members.
But now you have to close nine branches by the end of the year.
"We put everything to the test," says managing director Christian Leben to the
WAZ
.
Inflation has been causing noticeable price increases for grain for months.
Strongly increasing electricity prices would be expected for the winter.
Bakeries were hit twice by the crisis.
Many bakeries want to draw attention to their critical situation.
"The situation in the bakery trade has rarely been so difficult: the rising energy costs are causing great concern." Basic foods are more expensive than ever.
Therefore, the central association and its state guild associations have launched the "Bread Alert Level" initiative.
Traditional bakery closes branches - "Greetings, our shop is closed"
"The vicious circle of mutually reinforcing crises is causing enormous problems for the bakeries," writes
Land & Forst
.
Some could no longer withstand the cost pressure.
As a consequence, they close their bakeries.
In Weilheim, not too long ago, a baker also had to give up.
"Grüß Gott, our shop is closed", owner Jürgen Grünwald left on the answering machine after the end of his business.
Corona restrictions, price increases and his own overload have brought him to this step.
Traditional bakery closes branches - bakers do not pass on increasing costs to customers
Another issue is that many bakeries cannot fully pass on rising costs to their customers.
If they did, customers would have to pay three or four times as much for baked goods, says Helge Sommerwerk, operator of six bakeries, to
MDR
.
However, many customers could not do that.
“They would of course primarily go to the discounters”, and then the bakers would no longer have any sales at all.
