We are facing unprecedented times.<\/p>\n
Horrendous death toll predicted, NHS overwhelmed, threat of lock down, new terms \u201csocial distancing\u201d and \u201cself isolation\u201d, school closure & exam cancellation, international travel over, stocks & shares collapsed and businesses closing everywhere.<\/p>\n
Rex Artisan Bakery opened in Little Chalfont March 26th, 2014<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0We\u00a0have survived & thrived through many challenges since then and yet\u00a01 week short of 6 years\u00a0later \u2013 we find ourselves fighting for survival.<\/strong><\/p>\n We grew to 50% retail through our community shop and 50% wholesale, supplying discerning\u00a0food outlets\u00a0across the Chilterns. We are Sourdough specialists aiming for nothing less than Excellence in #RealBread <\/a>and we have been judged & awarded<\/a> amongst the very best in Britain.\u00a0 We do like to think we got a few things right along the way \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n Nothing has come close to the effect on\u00a0Rex that losing so much of your wholesale custom has had in just a couple of days.\u00a0 We feel so sorry for the many wonderful discerning cafes, pubs, restaurants that we have loved supplying, who have\u00a0been forced to close their doors to the public already since the announcement of the latest government interventions. Gilbey\u2019s<\/a> in Old Amersham, Breadhouse<\/a> in Chalfont St Peter to\u00a0share a couple.\u00a0 There were more about to open with us who have had to abandon their plans \u2013 with sky high fixed costs\u00a0it\u2019s a tall order to survive in Hospitality if\u00a0the public is asked to stay away from your sites.\u00a0 \u00a0We are concerned for the owners & their staff, for whom the budgetary measures mentioned do not come close to protecting their financial wellbeing at this time.\u00a0 We are concerned for the disappointed customers\u00a0and of course for our own livelihood too.<\/p>\n Thankfully we have seen a big increase in Shop sales in the past week, with Sourdough selling out in the 1st 45 minutes after we open at 7am and all bread loaves sold by 11am yesterday.\u00a0 We have been increasing production and supply for the shop to meet this new early morning demand so please do continue to come and support us!\u00a0<\/strong> \u00a0 We think that our lovely friends of Rex are staying local, choosing the highest quality food for a healthy diet in these worrying times and making sure they have stocks of their staple daily bread.\u00a0 Thank you, we NEED YOU in order that we can keep going.<\/p>\n In Phase 1 \u2013 we moved to cashless, implemented a 1 metre distance between all people in the shop, stopped any handling of the product by anybody except gloved\/ tonged staff, started to shut early for extra clean-down and segregation of staff groups.\u00a0 In Phase 2 earlier this week we removed table seating for eat-in and will provide tape on the floor for reinforcing the 1 metre rule.\u00a0 We have plans for Phase 3 should Little Chalfont go into Lockdown and become like Italy and other countries, where only food shops & pharmacies are permitted to be infrequently visited.\u00a0 Rest assured, people\u00a0are still buying a coffee during these local grocery shopping trips, but by law they must keep their distance and can\u2019t sit in to drink it.<\/p>\n All is not lost!\u00a0 We are\u00a0thrilled that our fabulous grocery wholesale customers like Budgens<\/a>\u00a0&\u00a0Organic Bread Shop<\/a>\u00a0are also seeing\u00a0strong sales,\u00a0with their shoppers also staying local & ensuring they have sufficient stocks of daily staples like Bread.\u00a0 And we are seeing tremendous creativity and commitment to remain open by customers like the brilliant\u00a0Huddle<\/a>\u00a0in Gerrards Cross, Coopers<\/a> in Marlow and No 2 Pound Street <\/a>in Wendover.\u00a0 We encourage all to try their generous delivery services!<\/p>\n But let us not underestimate how challenging the coming weeks & months will be for all of us, how stretched our scarce resources will be.\u00a0 We hear & read \u201csupport your community\u201d pleas and it goes both ways.\u00a0 We have reached out to the Church, Community Association and Little Chalfont CoronaVirus Help<\/a> group with ideas on our part, and look forward to any other ideas that anybody in our community has!<\/p>\n Look forward to seeing you in Rex for all that extra-made #RealBread!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rexbakery.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/sun-opening-300x225-1.jpg\")
As business owners we\u00a0have been cautious & careful at every step.\u00a0 We are in no debt, we are our own landlords, we have taken prudent steps to growth, we diversified across retail and wholesale, across breads\/ pastries\/ sandwiches\/ coffees.\u00a0 As a consequence we have been able to weather the storms across the portfolio \u2013 including but not restricted to new competitors,\u00a0staff that let us down, failing customers that never paid, fraud, petty\u00a0rules & regulations, seasonal variations and more.<\/p>\n