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"Rigma mortis" in the applicant market for bakeries and butchers

2022-09-23T14:11:07.357Z


"Rigma mortis" in the applicant market for bakeries and butchers Created: 09/23/2022, 16:00 By: Birgit Lang Lack of staff: Displays like here at the Gruber bakery on Dorfen Rathausplatz and notices with reduced opening hours are normal. © Birgit Lang Bakers and butchers cannot find staff. Branches have to reduce their opening hours or even close. The masters are frustrated. Dorfen/Taufkirchen


"Rigma mortis" in the applicant market for bakeries and butchers

Created: 09/23/2022, 16:00

By: Birgit Lang

Lack of staff: Displays like here at the Gruber bakery on Dorfen Rathausplatz and notices with reduced opening hours are normal.

© Birgit Lang

Bakers and butchers cannot find staff.

Branches have to reduce their opening hours or even close.

The masters are frustrated.

Dorfen/Taufkirchen

– It's getting tight.

More and more bakeries and butchers are already opening in the mornings only.

There is a lack of staff.

Some companies are slowly getting down to their substance.

Apprentices, journeymen and sales staff are desperately needed.

"People are missing everywhere - in production and in sales," says Ingrid Zuhr from Moosen.

She and her husband Manfred have been running the butcher shop and inn Zuhr since the 1980s.

It hit the master badly.

"One butcher is ill, another has stopped." Manfred Zuhr had to run the butcher's shop alone - at the age of 60 and in poor health.

A stroke of luck for him is that he has had an apprentice since September.

In sales, things are looking a little better, but not rosy either.

"Our employees are all over 40," explains his wife.

Offspring is not in sight.

"We still have good, hard-working employees and can be satisfied that they are staying," says Ingrid Zuhr.

Even if some good saleswomen would have looked for another job during Corona where they no longer have to work on weekends.

Standing in the store from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., you have to do something.

Quirin Brugger from Martins Backstube is also looking, here with the employees Sabine, Alex, Yusuf and Steffi (from left).

© Birgit Lang

The tavern has already been shut down anyway because you can no longer manage it personally and physically.

Finding waitresses is not a problem, but kitchen staff is.

The oldest but very loyal employee here is now 68 years old.

"It's exhausting in the kitchen and the tone is rough.

It has to be quick,” says head chef Manfred Zuhr.

His wife adds that there is neither the time nor the nerves to train lateral entrants.

"Personnel bottlenecks?

Yes, nothing will change about that,” says Katrin Widl from the Dorfener butcher shop Widl.

Apprentices have not been found for a long time.

“There is no offspring”, neither in production nor in sales.

Master butcher Florian Stirner, who employs 55 people at the Stirner butcher shop with branches in Dorfen, Neuötting, Burghausen and Töging as well as production in Perach in the district, describes the current situation as "rigor mortis".

As a company, you are in a losing position.

“It is almost impossible to get good staff.

We're not getting any more applications.” In addition, there are skyrocketing energy costs.

Stirner predicts that many companies will close if the energy market does not relax drastically.

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Florian Stirner was satisfied when he opened his Dorfen butcher shop in 2018.

Today, like everyone else in the industry, he is fighting for employees.

© Birgit Lang

He is not frustrated, but sees little perspective for changing the situation, he also explains in his function as guild master of Mühldorf, many companies feel the same way.

He has no choice but to adjust the opening hours.

After all, he didn't want to overload the staff.

Some of his four branches are no longer open in the afternoon, and he has completely closed the fifth in Altötting.

"I'm not a pessimist," emphasizes Stirner.

Only four years ago he invested a good half a million euros in his Dorfen butcher shop, according to the 39-year-old.

You build such a shop for ten years, that's how long financing and depreciation would run.

He has also invested a lot in terms of energy, for example in PV systems, but his electricity costs will increase from January 2023, as of today, from 3,000 to up to 16,000 euros a month, Stirner calculates.

He still sees an alternative: "Four weeks ago we opened the first self-service shop." The problem is that customer contact and service were lost here.

Self-service shops can therefore only be seen as a supplement.

Master baker Herbert Meindl currently works 70 to 80 hours in Grüntegernbach.

He is assisted by one full-time and two part-time employees in the bakery at Meindl Bakery.

"An apprentice or a good journeyman would be fine," he says.

Then he could step back a bit.

But it has become difficult in the past two to three years, says the 45-year-old.

As a career changer, Patrick Feulner works in the Gruber bakery.

© Birgit Lang

One problem is that baker's apprentices have to start early, there is no suitable bus connection and the relatives usually do not want to drive their child to work at 5 a.m.

His wife Elisabeth is better positioned in sales.

She only works with part-time employees who he took over from his predecessor and who have been employed here for 15 to 20 years.

“They fill in for each other when they are on vacation or sick.

If necessary, a baker will also help in sales,” says the 43-year-old.

The situation is a bit more relaxed at Martins Backstube, which operates a total of nine branches in Dorfen and the surrounding area.

In sales and in the confectionery there are only "a bit of a bottleneck," explains junior manager Quirin Brugger, who is responsible for human resources and logistics.

But that depends on holidays and illnesses.

"Perhaps we are still blessed because we carry on as normal." They also have three new apprentices.

The 26-year-old emphasizes that it is not just about finding good staff, but also about keeping them.

Most employees have already completed their training in the company.

“We take great care to ensure that our employees are happy.

We pay sensibly and attach great importance to not having to work overtime.” The shift plan is also laid out in such a way that it suits everyone.

Work-life balance has become more important to employees, especially since Corona.

Nevertheless, Brugger also has a shortage of staff.

He has been looking for a saleswoman for the branch in Lengdorf for two months.

Half an hour after the first conversation with our newspaper, Quirin Brugger received two pieces of bad news: a saleswoman resigned because of moving, another called in sick because of problems with her spinal discs.

So he immediately put a job ad online.

"You don't get any applicants.

We would be looking for two part-time employees each for our branches in Dorfen and Haag,” says Christine Gruber from the Gruber bakery in St. Wolfgang.

"Working on Saturday mornings is no longer part of the lifestyle," she says.

It used to be no problem finding employees to work on Sundays.

It's even worse for bakers.

Her husband has been working alone in the bakery for three weeks because the employee is on vacation.

It is physically difficult work with poor working hours.

Her conclusion: "Reduced opening hours, reduced range, this is what the future will look like."

After all, Gruber recently found a new 450 force.

A career changer.

It's Patrick Feulner from Buchbach, who is currently completing further training in media design in Munich.

“I would like to earn a little extra money and have already worked in service.

It fits the working hours, I don't have to work the late shift," he says.

He starts at 6:30 am and works until 1:00 pm.

The bakery chains aren't doing any better either.

The branch of the wishes bakery at the Edeka market in Dorfen has only been open until 2 p.m. since August.

The Mautner branch in the old bread house in the city center closed in May. Before that, like the branches in Taufkirchen and Moosen, it was only open in the mornings.

Master baker Helmut Mautner explains: “There is no staff, it is catastrophic.

If we weren't so thick in it ourselves, it wouldn't work anymore.” He and his wife Elisabeth Kubiak (54) are now alone in the bakery.

Working 100 hours a week is not uncommon for the 71-year-old.

In Moosen, the master baker did a one-week holiday replacement himself because he couldn't find a substitute quickly.

He sees his mobile sales as an alternative, but there is a lack of staff here too.

By the way: The bread house, as one of the oldest houses in the village, can look back on a long baking tradition.

"Several bakers used to sell their goods here and the customers could compare the quality directly," says historian Franz Streibl.

Now a mobile phone shop has moved in.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-09-23

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