Co-op bakery?

Reg

As mentioned in a previous thread (about the demise of Home on SGR) I have been reading about this co-op bakery - [Handmade Bakery](http://www.thehandmadebakery.coop) The idea is that as many local people as possible subscribe to receive bread. Pay monthly, pick it up weekly. This commitment underpins the business of the bakery and allows it to set up. Any profits that are generated over the year are circulated among the subscribers. Not only might this give us the local bakery we've all been after but it might just add something to SGR. I don't know much more than that at the moment but if enough people are interested I can look in to it... i.e. how many people would be needed to get it up and running, how much it would cost to set up, how it would work legally, where you get a baker from(!) etc Let me know what you make of it by leaving a comment and if it seems positive enough we can have a look at working it up. In the meantime, any lawyers or accountants out there with anything to add? Pro bono of course.

Arkady

I'm definitely interested!
Arky

krappyrubsnif

Me too!

andy

Interested, but I can't believe the economics stack up on consumer deliveries alone. If a couple of corporate accounts (bars/restaurants) signed on, that would change it.

Fin

Would also be interested, please keep us informed.

tomp

yep me too

twinspark

Can I just add that It is still legal to bake bread at home. You can this without the need for a lawyer or an accountant. Kneading dough has all kinds of side benefits I would imagine although I'll bet no one can wait until the loaf has cooled off before eating a slice or six.

krappyrubsnif

Additionally, domestic bread machines are available and may also avoid the risk of knuckle damage

rainbow_carnage

I'm much too lazy to knead my own dough, and there's no space in the kitchen for yet another machine. We'd happily join a co-op bakery. My main question would be how long we'd have to subscribe for. I imagine this sort of business requires a substantial amount of capital to get if off the ground. That would come, at least in part, from subscribers. In other words, a certain number of people would have to pay for x number of weeks upfront, right? I'd kinda like to try the bread before I commit to six months or a year's worth of loaves.

hellojo

The bakery linked above is my mother's local bakery - sold via the relatively recently started community shop. And the bread is absolutely wonderful. I don't think she subscribes, but does often order bread to pick up the day after (as otherwise it's all sold out!). If we could get a baker half as good as this I would definitely be keen.

dorothy

@Reg, like Andy I don’t think the numbers will stack up easily. I listened to the Radio 4 thing about Handmade Bakery. It sounded great, I like how they keep varying the bread and coming out with new recipes. But it’s a rural model, and let’s face it, there’s stuff all else to do out there. I had thoughts about opening a bakery in Stroud Green myself, and there’s been the pub talk too.

There’s a lot of competition to consider and people are so fickle. They get bored and grumpy at the slightest thing, then they boycott you forever. I wonder if a lot of the people on here get their bread delivered with their organic veg from Abel and Cole etc, it’s kind of easier.

If you had a shop premises, you would need to sell lots of coffee to bring in more profit. For some reason people prefer to spend £2.50 on coffee than, the same, on a loaf of bread. Stroud Green’s not exactly affluent. Any successful bakery would need all of those Crouch Enders stopping off on the way up and down the hill and coming in. You would need them literally getting off the bus or parking the car, making a special trip and queuing around the block, to sell enough of the stuff. They would have to come in because the croissant were so delicious, but still reasonably priced, the excellent customer service and the fact that there was nothing else like it nearby.

This then brought me to how I would put Dunns out of business, which I think is essential to the project. You would need all of that custom. After going into Dunns and studying the individual, I felt a seductive temptress might be able to send him off the rails and make him take his eye off his business. Later I thought maybe a rent boy would be what’s needed. It wouldn’t so much be the procurement of the rent boy, but the keeping him to the job description that might prove tricky. Then it all, just kind of, gets further away from the original purpose of selling bread.

Anyway I’d love a good local bakery.

hellojo

There may be a lot less stuff to do near Handmade Bakery, but it's certainly not rural - most people in the area do big supermarket shops from one of the several big supermarkets within a 15 minute drive - it's one of the things that has brought people back to shopping locally.

Contrast this with the very large number of people in SG who don't drive on their daily commute, and are much more likely to stop off when walking/getting on or off the tube and bus and pick up something much more regularly. Also, apart from Tesco's and the occasional other shop if you're there early, very few places sell any brown/wholemeal bread at all except Hovis. Even a not so posh proper loaf would go down well I think, if the shop was well located. If it sold non-plastic cheddar as well then I might never need to go to SGR tesco again...

Fin

The Front Room always seems busy and less popular cafes such as Dream River & Coffe Haven look to be doing ok, so any baker who can combine the bread/pastry/coffee model even moderately well could be very successful. Euphorium on Upper St (both branches) might be a good model.

dorothy

Stroud Green Road isn't Upper St though. It's dead in the daytime. Euphorium's full of mums with giant buggies all day.

It's not that a bakery wouldn't work, it's just that it would be tough in Stroud Green. I must admit I'm not sure where the Handmade Bakery is, but if they're only competing with supermarkets then it's easier. There are quite a few places you can get decent bread in north London, but just not on our doorsteps. The same is true of cheese, but I won't start on that.

Fin

The point is most successful "bakeries" in London are cafes first, bakeries second in terms of how they make their money. It seems fairly easy to run a viable cafe in Stroud Green, vaguely nice ones (e.g. Front Room), seem to do especially well, so get that right and the bakery will look after itself.

checkski

Lidls in 7 Sisters Rd sells excellent black bread for about 75p.

rainbow_carnage

Good for Food is full of mums with buggies during the day. As a rule, I don't approve of screaming toddlers, but it shows that there are people around during the day. A family-friendly cafe/bakery would go down well. Quality is key to any successful business. Remember when Petek first opened? Or Dotori? They were dead for a while, but once word of mouth spread, they started to fill up. Dotori is now packed at lunchtime. There were a couple bakeries by Tesco, but they weren't any good. Why would anyone spend £2.50 on a loaf of mediocre bread? I'm happy to pay extra for quality, but I can get average goods at Tesco for less. We do get bread through Abel and Cole, but we'd happily switch to a nice local bakery. Btw, has anyone tried the bread at the Happening Bagel Bakery? Their bagels are pants. The challa isn't very good, either. I prefer Grodzinski's.

Reg

All good stuff people. Will look in to it, and I agree that this might be at best marginal (esp with London rents - and even more now that we are *officially* out of recession [sigh]). I see that the Handmade Bakery started in a restaurant kitchen. I am sure one on SGR would be interested in looking in to it. Maybe one or two of the pizza ovens that tend to only be used in the evenings? cue MEDI. Down boy.

Cllr Richard Watts

I'd definitely be up for eating some of the Stroud Green loaf. Some decent bread outlets can be found here: (I should declare an interest here as this is one of the projects i manage at work), although the nearest listed shop is in Highbury.

We used to get some lovely bread through a Riverford veg box (I know, I know) but apparently the bread is so popular that they've had to temporarily stop

markwhitehead

I think it's a fabulous idea but agree with previous people that it would not be economically viable. There are several shops where you can buy fresh bread within minutes of anywhere in Stroud Green/Crouch end. There just wouldn't be the volume demand to make it work as a business whether it was run co-operatively or whatever.
Personally I have a bread machine and hardly ever buy a loaf in a shop/bakery, and nice though it may be to have an artisan bakery nearby, I can't see myself spending a lot more money (probably at least 3 times the cost) to go and buy bread made by someone else.

Ian

I'm with @Markwhitehead. I also make my own bread just for my family. I wouldn't want small business moving in to the area and destroying all these micro-businesses like ours...

miss annie

@checkski
The black bread in Lidl is lovely.

Just read that they've come joint third (with Aldi!) in a Which? poll of best supermarkets - ahead of Sainsburys, Tesco and Morrisons. They also sell a highly recommended Wensleydale with cranberries. I know it's not bread but it is delicious.

checkski

Agreed, Miss A. I mostly go to Tesco's, because it's nearer, but Lidl's is far cheaper, has better quality products, and better queuing arrangements. I just wish the two stores could swap places!

gardener-joe

...

Mirandola

It's a great idea. Except for the part where I feel like we're recreating Archers storylines. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/archers/backstage/village_shop2.shtml

Not that that's a bad thing.

tosscat

I've been following that on the Archers too.

Thomas

Was the consensus that this isnt economically viable? Really fed up with supermarket bread... If we can't have a bakery, how do we go about setting up a Stroud Green Farmers Market to satisfy our posh bread, veg and burger needs? Reckon something like that would really help give the high street a boost at weekends.

graeme

Sounds a nice idea, though the Alexandra Palace Market (admittedly quite far away) is freaking it's mungbeans because of a Crouch End resident's push to get a farmer's market outside the town hall. The CE campaign apparently has (I'm sure I read somewhere) "100% support from residents, says a campaign spokesperson". Not sure the area can support 3 farmer's markets within about 4 miles?

djmattyoung

These people do a nice French and Italian market in East Finchley -
maybe worth contacting them about a market for SGR?
Just an idea.

andy

BBMs baguettes are quite good.

andy

Boulangerie being french for bakery and all.