Due to skyrocketing energy costs, bakeries in Germany are finding it difficult to keep their ovens running. If politicians don’t do something soon, not all companies will make it, says Axel Oppenborn in an interview with ntv.de. With his brother he runs a bakery chain in Hanover. In order to absorb the extra costs, his rolls would have to be almost twice as expensive. And that’s just the beginning, because the costs for electricity and gas continue to rise.
ntv.de How is your bakery doing at the moment?
Axel Oppenborn: We are very worried. On the one hand, the prices for raw materials are higher than ever. For example, because of the Corona crisis, delivery problems and now the Ukraine war, flour costs twice as much as before the crises. On the other hand, our electricity contract was terminated in March, so that we fell into the basic supply. Now we pay four times as much for electricity. After all, our gas contract runs until the end of the year – some colleagues have already had it terminated. Gas costs ten times as much at the moment. Added to this is the minimum wage, which also hits us. We are struggling with a huge financial challenge.
How do you manage the enormous additional costs?
At the moment due to price adjustments.
Can you pass all your extra costs on to customers?
We have already increased our prices drastically. However, we are reaching our limits because we are noticing that our customers are slowly becoming reluctant to buy.
How much does a roll cost you and how expensive would it have to be to absorb the increased costs?
At the moment our normal roll costs 50 cents. To absorb the prices, it would have to be maybe 80 to 90 cents. However, I can’t say that exactly, because I don’t see that the energy price is stopping anywhere. There is no light at the end of the tunnel at the moment.
What options do you still have to save costs?
They are definitely limited. For example, we have ovens in our shops that are heated with electricity. In order to save something, we could bake less of everything or reduce the range. Bakeries could also save some gas by using heat recovery. For the conversion, however, they would first have to invest again.
The crafts president Hans Peter Wollseifer recently said that he expects a wave of insolvencies in the crafts if the industry is not helped quickly. Can you get your 240 employees through the fall and winter?
Yes, we will get our employees through the winter because our contract for gas runs until the end of the year and we believe in politics. However, if nothing happens and prices continue to rise, next year will be difficult. The prices have risen so exorbitantly that you can no longer realistically afford them. An example: A colleague always paid around 8,000 euros a month for the gas for his production. After his contract was terminated, he now pays 75,000 euros a month. This price is so unrealistic that many will not be able to pay it permanently. Without gas, however, there is no production either.
Bread and rolls are actually always needed.
That’s correct. But there are many ways to buy bread these days. When bakeries get too expensive, people are likely to turn to industrial goods. When the craft dies, only the industrial rolls remain. Industry can import its products from abroad and manufacture them with cheap labour. This scenario is one of our greatest fears.
To what extent is this crisis worse for you than the stress caused by the corona pandemic?
The café closures during the pandemic were bad for us too. However, we had the opportunity to adapt. We took advantage of short-time work and were able to save costs through fewer staff and materials.
The federal government has already put together three relief packages, but none of them will help medium-sized companies. What does the government have to do to save the bakeries?
We demand three things from the government: First, the state should assume 80 percent of the additional costs that we have compared to 2021. Secondly, companies that are already seeing liquidity problems must be classified as hardship cases in order to get help quickly. And thirdly, Finance Minister Christian Lindner must release the debt brake, otherwise the government will not be able to bear the costs of the energy crisis.
Sarah Platz spoke to Axel Oppenborn
