As world leaders continue their COP29 climate change talks in Azerbaijan this week, a case study of a new craft bakery in south Wales highlights how small businesses can progress the UK’s journey towards net zero.
Rosa’s Bakery in Neath, near Swansea, is a family-run firm specialising in Romanian-style goods including sourdough loaves and pastry parcels. It was founded in April of this year by Estera-Rosa Cundill, who was just 17 years old at the time.
Located on Neath’s Shufflebotham Lane, the bakery received a grant from the local council to part-fund the installation of an EcoCooling system, which uses an evaporative cooling technique reminiscent of the ancient Egyptian method of hanging a wet towel over an open window. Rosa’s chose it due to the promise of reduced energy bills and refrigeration requirements.
The business also relies on 90% renewable energy, uses compostable packaging across its range, and encourages customers to reuse bags such as their branded jute bags.
In addition to the council grant, two start-up loans totalling £50k from British Business Bank helped purchase equipment including a Mono Harmony three-deck oven, a Mono pastry sheeter, a Polin 60kg mixer, a Williams retarder prover, and a Mech-Masz water doser-mixer.
Another Welsh firm, Eko Bakery in Newport, was also aided in opening its doors earlier this year thanks to the British Business Bank’s Start Up Loans programme. In October, the bank announced that it had provided over £50m worth of funding to small businesses in Wales, equating to almost 5,000 loans since the programme launched in 2012.
Better for you and planet
Cundill inherited her baking talent and a keen interest in nutrition from her Bucharest-born mother Rosana. The teenager has also completed a Bertinet Kitchen bread-making course (a Christmas present from her father) as well as the first year of a professional bakery apprenticeship at Neath College. She now develops her own recipes using as little sugar as possible.
Her signature sweet bakes are Poale-n Brâu (traditional Romanian sweet cheese and raisin parcels), fig rolls, apple strudels, cinnamon swirls, chocolate & pecan cookies, and raspberry mini cheesecakes. Sourdough loaves, meanwhile, include the Marmadough made with yeast extract similar to marmite, the peanut butter-infused Nutterdough, the Greek Sourdough with sundried tomatoes, olives, and feta cheese, and the buttery Daddy’s Loaf created by her father Chris.
The product range is organically certified by The Soil Association. “Small businesses should never give up on finding natural solutions. Keep believing in better,” commented Cundill.
“We want to become more sustainable by sourcing even more of our ingredients locally. We’re excited about supporting our local food chain further,” she notes, adding that she will also be supplying her father’s new delicatessen and organic food hall, Neath Deli, opening a mere 100m away from the bakery.
Richard Bearman, managing director of small business lending at British Business Bank, described Rosa’s Bakery as a great example of a company that “isn’t on the face of it set up with sustainability in mind”. He said it “just goes to show that all businesses, no matter what sector they operate in, have a role to play in helping the UK reach net zero.”
Craft bakeries can find information to support their own decarbonisation journey on British Business Bank’s sustainability webpage. There’s also the ‘Navigating Net Zero Handbook’ published by Scotland Food & Drink in July.
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