"At the moment, things haven’t slowed down that much in terms of basic food sales and petrol is cheaper than it was six months ago. From a general trade point of view, we have to be careful not to talk ourselves down too much. We have to keep positive and keep doing what we know we can do well; we are in a better position than many trades.
On a personal level, I’ve just bought a new bakery in Snodland near West Moorling in Kent, which I’m in the middle of doing up. We opened the shop the week before Christmas and have been bringing goods over from our family bakers in Strood. Our first days of trading saw people queueing out of the door.
Although we cannot get the actual bakery open for another month or two, until the building work has finished, we can bring in fresh bread and cakes every day from our bakery about five miles away. So on a personal level, we hope to face a slightly busier few months than we maybe would have done.
Having talked to other bakers, it’s not perhaps quite as busy as they would have liked it to have been, but the market hasn’t dropped completely and I’m a great believer in keeping positive."
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