Allied Bakeries has been hit by “significant margin decline” as a result of low prices and cost pressure, according to parent company Associated Bri… Visit http://www.bakeryinfo.co.uk today for more information!
Category: Latest News
Roberts set to shake up wrapped bakery category with radical relaunch
Exciting times ahead in the re-branding of Roberts Bakery. Something different in the bakery category that should make their range stand out on shelf. Roberts Bakery is a business that is in a crowded market place and really does have to stand out from the rest of the bakery section as it is really competitive. The new rolls look different and so are the 6oog Bloomers.
Source: Roberts set to shake up wrapped bakery category with radical relaunch
Hovis ‘Boy on Bike’ finally rides up that hill
Why are bread prices going up?
What a start to the year it has been so far. We had Trump, Brexit , Angus, Barbara ,Conor and now Doris, and if that wasn’t bad enough bread prices are going up very soon.
Bread has been too cheap for too long in my opinion, and now because of continued rising costs in the living wage, rates increase , fuel and the deflation of the pound against the dollar and euro. The pound buys you roughly 15% less than before the Brexit referendum, and so a lot of the commodities like on Palm Oil, Softeners & Improvers, Yeast, Soya Flour, Bread Bags and Corrugate, are all costing more to buy.
The average price of a loaf in most supermarkets and discounters is £1 , even for the UK No1 brand Warburtons. I suppose that you have to agree that this works out at just 12.5p for 100g of bread, and you cant buy 100g of many foods for 12.5p. Even cat food is more expensive.
Felix Pouch With Chicken In Jelly 100g is just £0.40. 
The problem now is the price marked £1 loaf, is that going to disappear from our shelves? as it will not be viable to hold the price. The consumers love to buy price marked products, it’s a proven fact. Maybe we will see the PMP at £1.09, who knows.
We as always will try and keep our pricing for PMP (price marked packs) at £1 as it is the only way we can compete in the world of bakery competitively. This is going to be a temporary measure for now to help protect sales and keep consumers.
Our other breads have to go up and it is the same for all the brands. Hovis, Kingsmill and Roberts have announced that they are to increase their breads, only Warburtons haven’t yet, but inevitably will follow suit soon. Watch this space.
Coultons Bread sponsors Help for Heroes fundraiser in Tottington, Bury
Coultons Bread Ltd are proud to be associated with this prestigious charity event, held at Greenmount Cricket Club in Tottington, Bury in Lancashire , and are main sponsors under their Bakestone brand banner.
The organisers behind this event are Andrew and Terri Eccles who are the Tenant landlords of the local pub “The Dungeon Inn” located in the village of Tottington, and they work tirelessly all year round to raise money for the Help for Heroes charity. They organise fundraising events throughout the year to raise awareness and last year they raised an awesome amount of money.
The community really did dig deep, but this year we are hoping to raise even more.
The charity itself needs to raise millions each year to help as many ex-servicemen and women as possible get back to leading a full life just like many of us are fortunate to have.
If you would like to know where all the money goes and the great work Help for Heroes does, then visit their website Help for heroes website
There are just a few tickets left for this “Black Tie” gala dinner and if you would like to join us at this prestigious event, you can buy the tickets from Andrew or Terri at The Dungeon Inn The Dungeon Inn, Tottington ,or if you can’t come along and wish to donate please feel free to do so, or just pop into the pub any time all year round as they have collecting tins on the bar.
Coultons Bread opens new distribution depot in Wales
Coultons Bread Ltd, one of the UK’s leading distribution bakeries, will open the base at Cibyn Industrial Estate , Caernarfon in November 2016 and will create 20 jobs
This depot is a strategic partnership between Coultons Bread Ltd and Allied Bakeries, whose brands include Kingsmill, Burgen, Allinson, and Sunblest.
Howard Hunter, managing director of Coultons Bread Ltd: “This is an exciting time for us all at Coultons Bread as we look to grow our bakery third party logistics services.
“We have established this business model with Allied Bakeries over the last three years at our existing six depot operations and we are proud to have built a strong reputation for operational efficiency and service excellence for our customers. Coultons will distribute the full catalogue of Allied Bakeries brands.”
Allied Bakeries is one of three divisions of Allied Milling and Baking, which in turn is part of Associated British Foods plc.
From Eccles to London
Well what a great experience we just had. Our merry team of ladies and myself worked really hard at The Fine Food Speciality show at Olympia Exhibition hall this week. We had been in London for 4 days promoting our unique Eccles cakes from Eccles in Lancashire.
Eccles is “the home of eccles cakes” and we met some lovely people who ate our product samples and said they were gorgeous. Their words not mine I hasten to add.
Older folk seemed to know what they were, but the younger people, and people from around the world had never heard of them loved them.
It was our first time that we had done a trade show and it is really hard on your legs and feet and you are really glad to get back to the hotel for that lovely hot bath to ease your aching body. I know I sound a bit dramatic, and it’s probably nothing like running a marathon or climbing a mountain. I think it’s because you are just stood around in the same sort of spot for hours.
So you ask was it worth it? well we got a lot of interest, and we will look through all the business cards we collected, and speak to potential customers over the coming weeks.
You never know what may come of it, one day you could be eating one of our gorgeous eccles cakes.
National Living Wage
April 1st 2016, is as every business owner knows the day that the minimum pay you can pay a member of staff over the age of 25, is £7.20 per hour. This is an increase of 50p per hour for the lowest paid.
Is the National Living Wage enforceable?
Yes, this is an a legally enforceable minimum level of pay, which is promoted by the Living Wage Foundation. It existed before the NLW was announced.
It is calculated by academics as the level of pay that would give workers sufficient for a basic standard of living.
At the moment, that amount is £8.25 an hour, and £9.40 an hour in London.
Everyone should paid a figure that let’s them live comfortably and rewards them for the hard work they do, however in an industry that is seeing bread prices reduced almost daily it could lead to job losses. I am not threatening this or advocating it but merely stating a fact. If the margin isn’t enough to balance the books then something has to go. Usually it’s the thing that costs the most i.e labour. But the problem doesn’t stop there as the job still has to be done and the bread still has to be delivered, so inevitably some bakers are going to close down, or downscale dramatically .
Our business also has it’s own problems in that our drivers work on a job and finish basis, so for example some drivers earn their pay in only 30 hours work and get the same pay as a driver who has a bigger route, or further to travel and earns the same. Now that longer hours driver is going to get a substantial pay rise because he has to earn £7.20 now per hour rather than £6.70.
What are the options?
We will probably have to reduce the hours of our driving staff by stopping daily deliveries to some of our customers who only buy a low volume. This will get the driver back earlier. Another idea is to stop the drivers chatting in the morning when they are loading up their vans and taking a long time to do this. We will have to make sure that they get loaded quicker, thus a saving on their hours.
Still it all amounts to just some of the challenges that you face if you want to run your own business.
Roberts Bakery sponsors Derby County FC
By William Axtell
Sam Rush Derby County FC and Robert Higginson Chairman of Roberts Bakery.
Roberts Bakery has signed an advertising deal with Derby County Football Club.
The bakery has signed a one-year contract to advertise its brand on the club’s pitch and stadium, along with a programme of fan and community engagement. The deal launched on 5 March, during Derby’s league game against Huddersfield.
Robert Higginson, chairman of Roberts Bakery, said: “Derby shares so many of our values – they are a family-friendly club that places emphasis on future generations, health and wellbeing.
“We are proud to be a partner and hope that the sponsorship, paired with the growing popularity of our bread products across the region, will further reinforce our position as the UK’s fastest-growing major bread brand.”
– See more at: http://www.bakeryinfo.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/15716/Roberts_Bakery_signs_football_deal.html#sthash.0HfeDsCM.dpuf
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