Will there still be bread on the table? More than a quarter of bakeries could go under due to rising costs

It goes without saying that you, as a consumer, are also painfully paying the rising energy bill every month. And if you are a business owner, you may also be seriously worried about the future of your company because of this. People are increasingly realizing that we are not just separate links, but a long chain that is getting into trouble because of the explosively rising prices. And so it could be that soon you will no longer be able to buy bread from the baker.

Because companies that need to use even more energy than others for the production of their goods are running into serious problems. The story of this baker is heartbreaking, and the figures seem almost unreal:

Through the roof

How on earth can, for example, Echte Bakker Piet Kerssens in Heiloo continue? Gertjan Kerssens, the third-generation baker in the family, tells De Volkskrant that his energy bill made this leap in one year: in August 2021, he paid 18,000 euros (for that one month) for gas and energy. Now, a year later, it is 46,000 euros. At this rate, his annual energy costs will amount to approximately half a million euros. Baker Kor Schreuder from Uddel told RTL Nieuws that his energy costs generally amounted to around 30,000 euros per year; now that is becoming 370,000 euros!

Domino effect

Not all price increases that may be passed on to you as a consumer are caused by higher energy costs. Packaging materials have become more expensive, as have raw materials. Eggs, which are also used extensively by bakers, have become thirty percent more expensive, partly due to higher prices for chicken feed, and bakers now pay around eight euros per kilo for butter.

Black hole

Many business owners are not at all eager to raise prices, for fear that customers will stay away and, for example, buy bread at the supermarket. But what else can they do? Silvia van Nieuwland is director of Beko, a company that provides business advice to artisan bakers. According to her, it is possible that more than a quarter of bakers will not make it and that closure or bankruptcy will be unavoidable if energy prices remain this high in 2023.

Sources: De Volkskrant, RTL Nieuws

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