Energy Crisis - The action your Association is taking

 The current economic crisis is understandably one of the toughest the craft bakery sector has had to deal with. To better understand the challenges bakers are currently facing and the impacts on their businesses, we recently conducted a survey asking our members to share their thoughts on these challenges, such as the rising cost of energy, and how they plan to deal with them.

The survey, conducted in August, revealed that 97% of bakers have had to increase the prices of their products in the last year, whilst other members have also had to adapt their businesses in other ways to further reduce the impact of higher costs. 53% of bakers have chosen to switch energy suppliers and 31% have introduced new and more efficient equipment in the hopes of reducing business costs in the form of energy bills.

Fortunately, despite these challenging times, our members are planning to continue operating as usual, with no imminent closures and many still choosing to operate out of multiple locations.

To offer further support to members and act as the voice of the craft bakery sector, we have written a letter for members to use and address to their local MPs requesting support for small businesses. The letter explains the importance of craft bakers to the local community and reiterates that without government support, we will see independent high street businesses close.

We have also, as an association, written to the CBA’s constituency MP, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak and, together with our colleagues who are part of the Independent Retail Confederation (19 individual trade associations), we have signed a collective letter asking for urgent support of independent businesses.