It\u2019s been 6 weeks since we announced our 3-step measures during the pandemic, on 14th March, with Phase 1 (cashless, new hygiene measures, shifts of staff in the bakery for distancing, customer distancing in the shop with floor markings\u2026) live ahead of any government interventions.\u00a0 \u00a0 One week later as pubs were closed, we removed eat in and moved to serving from the doorway only, with our acrylic sneeze guard in place.\u00a0 Our set-up has become more like a market stall than a bakery-coffee house, with the baskets of bread surrounding the lobby which 1 customer at a time can view & choose from.<\/p>\n
We are sad to lose\u00a0so much of the eat-in cafe business, but even more devastating has been the overnight loss of\u00a0\u00a0tens of wholesale customers\u00a0when so many fabulous cafes, pubs, restaurants\u00a0that we serve across the Chilterns had to close up.\u00a0 Many have innovated.\u00a0 Some tried to stay open for takeaway only but\u00a0found that this was not a viable business model; a few others reinvented themselves as local grocery or delivery businesses serving their local communities which has been so impressive, if challenging in time & effort for them.\u00a0 We are delighted to continue to supply The Hatchery, the quality Beaconsfield farm shop that delivers to the Chilterns community and has hundreds of email requests every day; Meat Hook, the popular\u00a0Bovingdon butchers; the Old Mill pub in\u00a0Berko which has set up as a farm shop and we are in awe of the amazing Coffee and Wine Boxmoor<\/a> business, which was a new start-up business that has pivoted to the hugest delivery service picking up & onwardly distributing hundreds of Rex products every week through the lockdown.<\/p>\n Due to the reduced customers, we moved to a skeleton staff, opening hours 7.30 \u2013 1.30 Tuesday \u2013 Saturday only and a slimmed down product range \u2013 we needed to focus on making just enough of the highest volume product lines so we are grateful to the various Government small business\u00a0Covid-19 support schemes,\u00a0enabling us to furlough & retain packers, driver, bakers, shop staff, day chefs.\u00a0 And it meant the Rex baker\u2019s family pitching in to help out with keeping\u00a0the distribution going\u00a0Tuesday \u2013 Saturday.\u00a0 \u00a0 We also waged a war on costs to try to manage profits, looking at energy, refuse costs, fuel, ingredients waste and more.<\/p>\n Our lockdown core daily product range is<\/p>\n We always planned to keep Friday & Saturday as larger ranges to include Baguette, maybe another sourdough like Pumpkin & Poppyseed,\u00a0Filone & ciabatta, Danish pastries, pain au raisin.\u00a0 We are thrilled that whilst we have seen a double digit decline in footfall over the reduced hours\u00a0and due to\u00a0only 1 customer at a time, each queuing customer is buying far more from Rex so surprisingly we were often selling out very early.\u00a0 Demand for so many items has meant 2 things<\/p>\n Thinking ahead to post-lockdown, we are hoping that we continue to see a strong retail business as we want this to be a big success.\u00a0 We can\u2019t see a fast return to crowded eating-in and queues of shoppers inside the shop, nor the open bread fixture that we once had.\u00a0 This will no doubt affect our wholesale customers as well as our Rex shop which is a longer term worry because even the biggest increase in shop sales can\u2019t touch the sides of the impact on our wholesale business.\u00a0 We are therefore starting to plan a new layout and system for when lockdown rules are relaxed.\u00a0 We think the current queues and sales demand are driven by<\/p>\n When some of these factors adjust, we risk seeing an impact on our business again.\u00a0 We really hope that the borrowed shopping we may be seeing now will stay with us, wouldn\u2019t it be wonderful if the death of the high street had been reversed by the pandemic, that shoppers had decided to shop local again for the long term.<\/p>\n what do you think?\u00a0 What products would you like to see us selling in Rex Bakery?<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n
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![\"fresh](\"https:\/\/www.rexbakery.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/6b3f3469-8a66-4e1e-9102-78c47d2567eb-225x300.jpg\")
Hirondelle Fresh yeast<\/strong>.\u00a0 You should know that this keeps fresh in your fridge for about a month, and that you should treble the quantity of dried yeast in a recipe when you use fresh yeast.\u00a0 This is the same leaven we use alongside our sourdough starter in Rex, and it absolutely flying out so far.<\/li>\n\n