How has the business managed throughout the last 10 days?

Business has been good, with strong volumes across our product range. We had to increase production 2.5 times to meet the demand from Storm Emma. We were able to get out second and third deliveries on the days leading up to Thursday. I would say, when fully accounting for all the costs incurred, everybody in the food industry has lost money over the last week.

How many days had you to prepare for the storm?

Thankfully, the red weather warning was for a Thursday, allowing us to easily increase production on the Tuesday and Wednesday. These are typically lighter days for our production and we had the capacity to meet the demand. Had the red alert kicked in for the Monday and the shopping days were over the weekend it would have been more challenging.

Are you back to normal business this week?

Business is getting back to normal. We could not deliver on Friday or Saturday due to the weather but we delivered a full service to Dublin on Sunday and got back to a full service nationwide by Monday.

How competitive is the bread sector?

The bread category in Ireland is exceptionally competitive. Bread is an extremely inelastic product in terms of price. There has not been a price rise for bread since December 2012. If you were to look at it as a whole, I’d say the bread category from a retail price point is static or in decline.

Has there been consolidation of bakeries?

There has been consolidation. This was a result of business failure rather than formal merger and acquisition activity. However, the number of bakeries in Ireland per head of population is still high and the economies of scale are not there. In the future I think we will continue to see strong regional bakeries but they will be successfully based around large population centres.

How have consumer shopping habits changed?

The big weekly shop is gone. We’re seeing Sunday and Monday as strong sales days. Thursday is no longer the big shopping day like it once was. Our weekly sales curve is much flatter than it would have been a decade ago.

How have you reacted to this changed consumer?

We’re experiencing volume growth because we’re producing seven days a week and responding to the little and often shopping habits of today’s consumer. Smaller convenience stores are strong sales channels for little and often shopping, and are much more competitive on price today.

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Bread production more than doubles to meet Storm Emma demand