The last loaf? Neighborhood bakeries struggle to survive

Yiannis Zervas, a third-generation baker successful Petralona, believes helium is the past subordinate of the household who will support the concern alive. [Nikos Kokkalias]

Yiannis Zervas gets up successful the aboriginal hours each day, and by 4 a.m. helium is already successful his workshop, baking breadstuff and preparing oat bars and sweets. It’s a regular he’s grown up with – archetypal watching his parents, then proceeding akin stories from his grandfather. His household opened its archetypal bakery successful Athens successful the 1970s and has worked successful the trade ever since.

Now 31, Zervas trained arsenic a baker and renovated the household store successful Petralona successful 2003. But since taking over, helium fears the tradition whitethorn extremity with him. “In fact, I judge I americium the past procreation that will support the bakery going,” helium told Kathimerini.

A operation of soaring vigor costs, inflation, rising rents successful cardinal areas and shifting user habits is threatening the survival of vicinity bakeries – galore of which person already been deed hard. According to information from the bakers’ relation successful Athens and the wider region, astir 1,000 bakeries that nutrient their ain breadstuff person closed successful the past three years. In total, some 3,000 bakeries, outlets, and pastry shops person unopen down crossed the state during the aforesaid period.

‘We use an electrical oven. When the war successful Ukraine began, our costs roseate by 300%. We couldn’t sorb that. Just arsenic things were starting to stabilize, different situation hit’

Zervas is not surprised. He himself has considered closing implicit the past 4 years. “Out of emotion for what I bash – and stubbornness – I support going. I retrieve helping my parent successful the bakery from a young age. But the truth is, there are months when we run astatine a loss,” helium admits.

The biggest challenge, helium says, is energy. Costs surged aft the war successful Ukraine and person risen again owed to the struggle successful the Middle East. Bakeries trust connected energy-intensive instrumentality – ovens powered by electricity, oil, oregon gas, and ample refrigeration units – making them highly vulnerable to terms increases. “We use an electrical oven. When the war successful Ukraine began, our costs roseate by 300%. We couldn’t sorb that. Just arsenic things were starting to stabilize, different situation hit.”

According to Zervas, caller developments person pushed costs up by different 40-50%, with much increases expected. Energy providers, helium adds, person refused to connection fixed-rate contracts, leaving businesses exposed. “Our energy bills are present two to three times higher than our rent.”

“The past energy measure I received was €1,000,” says Dionysia Christou, who runs a bakery with her hubby successful Piraeus. Unlike galore successful the trade, Christou entered the tract without anterior experience. When the mates opened their bakery successful 2010, it was a way retired of fiscal hardship during the economical situation – and it proved successful. Sixteen years later, however, they find themselves grappling with a new, geopolitically driven crisis.

Costs person risen crossed the board. “I specialize successful sweets, and I tin tell you that the terms of cocoa is similar the stock marketplace – it’s gone up by arsenic overmuch arsenic 60%,” she says. “Now I try to nutrient smaller quantities that past longer.”

The strain has forced hard decisions. “We’ve reduced staff. We present person 1 adjunct for a fewer hours a time and 1 part-time worker successful the bakery. My hubby and I screen everything other – from 7 successful the greeting until 8 astatine night. It’s highly demanding, and I don’t cognize however agelong we tin support it up.”

Confectioner Dionysia Christou and her hubby had to fto staff spell arsenic profits dwindled astatine their Piraeus bakery, which opened successful 2010. [Nikos Kokkalias]

At the aforesaid time, user behaviour is shifting. Customers are buying little oregon visiting bakeries chiefly connected special occasions. Still, some Christou and Zervas accidental contention from supermarkets is not the halfway issue. “Bread simply isn’t profitable anymore,” Christou explains. “The margins connected a loaf are minimal.” In her view, the assemblage is heading for a large transformation: “Those who survive will beryllium the ones who specialize.”

“Artisanal baking, arsenic we’ve known it, has nary aboriginal successful this country,” says Iasonas Kaplanis, president of the bakers’ association. “In 2010, there were 15,500 bakeries. By 2026, that fig has fallen beneath 13,000.” Speaking from his bakery successful Menidi, successful western Athens, helium describes a assemblage that demands relentless work – 7 days a week, without breaks for holidays. “When that effort is nary longer rewarded, radical leave. Some household bakeries adjacent due to the fact that there’s nary successor. I will discourage my ain children from entering the trade.”

And yet, arsenic a second-generation baker himself, Kaplanis watches the sector’s diminution with heavy frustration. He insists that traditional bakeries stay vital – offering prime products made with fresh, not frozen, dough, while supporting a wider web of suppliers, from flour and lipid to food and different earthy materials. “We want to support our businesses – and, astatine the aforesaid time, the astir basal staple of the Greek household.”

Iasonas Kaplanis inherited his bakery successful Menidi from his parents but does not program to promote his ain children to transportation the torch. [Nikos Kokkalias]