Hi, haven't been on here for a while, but i have been busy baking.
I am looking to start up my own bakery next year, and all the planning is going along nicely, but I am putting together my cashflow forecasts, and I am having trouble finding reliable information on the cost of utilities, electricity and water. would anyone be willing to share how much they spend on this a month? and also how many loaves/decks of bread you typically bake.
With water costs I have found that you pay for the waste treatment as well, and this is based on how much you draw from the system, as most of the water we uses ends up in the bread has anybody managed to bargain the price down?
bear in mind I'm in London UK so i am aware that this will change with location
Many thanks
Arthur
Hey, where in London are you planning to open your bakery?
When it comes to water, there may not be anything like that here, but back in Poland you could apply for a second meter to measure water going to the garden tap, and then pay for waste based on main meter reading minus the garden meter reading. It will be best if you call Thames Water and ask about it.
If you go to your council's of interest website to check the business units for rent, they often come with approximate utility costs. Electricity does not differ much based on place, but gas can get tricky with the magical conversion from cubic meters to kWh.
That's as much as I can help, I'm afraid, I haven't decided to open a bakery yet :)
i dont have a location yet, I am still trying to scrap some money together to make it happen, I hope to open next summer if everything goes to plan.
The advice for a second meter is very helpful, when I speak to Thames water I can ask them about fitting a second meter to a water filtration unit.
I wont be using gas, I plan on using a second hand bread oven, but it is hard to get any figures for power consumption.
but here in Canada the municipalities will charge both for the water and the sewage by percentage even if you sell beverages made mostly of city water. If Coke and Pepsi can't get out of it I doubt that an upstart bakery will have better results.
Gerhard
London has a good number of little independent bakeries - probably room for more, but you'll need to pick the location carefully. Have a look on the Real Bread Campaigns website to see where there are existing real bread outlets (which may or may not be your style and there will be many more not on their map, of-course, but it might give you a start).
https://www.sustainweb.org/realbread/
I can't help re. power prices, etc. I work from home and they're different. Some industrial electricity suppliers charge on peak current though rather than units, so knowing the oven powers might be handy. (I'm working with a microbrewery and that have a peak limit of 25Kw - and 50Kw worth of tank heaters, so it's a juggling act!)
Good luck!
-Gordon (in Devon)
yeah, close to where i live would have been great, but unfortunately one opened round the corner last year, so i am now looking further afield. I do have a couple of locations in mind, i have been doing some window shopping for properties, and i think i can afford the areas that i am looking in, but i will have to wait for the right deal to come along.
do you mean that if the brewery uses more than 25Kw they go to another pricing bracket? to start i will only be using a two deck oven, so my bill should be quite modest, but i will speak to some dealers to get a better idea of how much i will be drawing.
Yes - if they go above 25Kw then they move into the next charging bracket. They're charged a fixed amount regardless of energy used providing it's less than 25Kw.
(They are actually part of a larger site though - the whole site has a much larger limit, but they've given them a miserly 25Kw limit).
I can draw 9Kw at home with 3 ovens running - when I did a little bit of research deck ovens were starting at about 10Kw and going up from there... e.g. a quick look here: http://www.chandleyovens.co.uk/products/ viewing one of their PDFs suggest up to 57Kw 3-phase.
-Gordon