BATH BAKERY GOES FOR HANDS OFF BAKING WITH A BONGARD OVEN
If you were to ask Bob Penders, General Manager of Bath Bakery, what advice he would offer to a teenager thinking of coming into the bakery trade it would be - "think it through carefully first." If that sounds negative it is not meant to be, as Bob explained. "The bakery trade works unsocial hours which do not suit the typical young trainee of today. We have two shifts starting at 10pm and 3am and any young people coming into the trade have to be very aware of how this is going to effect their social life - we are fortunate in that we have a couple of very keen young lads in our team."
"I came into the trade later in life when my family was established", he continued, "but it can be very hard on those who have not thought through this aspect of the job. In fact our local college no longer runs a bakery course for this very reason. But once the teenage courting days are over then the working hours actually suit some families."
The shortage of skilled staff has been a constant problem for Bob, and with three other independent bakeries and three in-store bakeries in the famous tourist city sharing the shrinking pool of real bakers he has had to structure production around the inevitable recruitment of some non-skilled staff.
This was reflected in the new machinery he purchased from Mono Equipment last year. The bakery's new spiral mixer, nine rack walk-through retarder-prover, deck ovens, and rack oven all have programmable controllers, ensuring consistency in production across a massive 310 different product lines and making it so much easier to absorb non-skilled, or semi-skilled staff, into a busy production process.
They have found that the steam volume and finish from this oven is far superior
to any other oven they have used."
Unusually for an independent bakery, more than 35% of its output is loaves, and nearly 50% of the bakery's wholesale trade is bread. With most other small to medium sized bakery businesses leaning heavily on the takeaway trade this is an interesting move away from the national trend that is caused by the city's heavy reliance on the tourist trade and hence an above average demand for quality sliced bread. All Bath Bakery's crusty products and savouries are baked in the Bongard oven and with the business's large bread output, it was felt necessary to have an oven that is designed to give a quick but professional bake to its 180 different bread and roll recipes.
"This is the way the trade has to move", stated Bob, "We have two retail outlets, but I also have 60 wholesale customers and if they don't get their order on time, and to the quality specified, their future custom is threatened. Installing programmable equipment gives us an element of 'hands off control', which in the event of me being one skilled person down for a shift gives greater flexibility with the staff I have. This modern equipment has allowed me to do that on more than one occasion."
(Reproduced, with permission, from 'Bake & Take', September 2004.)
