Business is booming at London’s Kindred Bakery following a devastating flood at its Herne Hill branch in August 2013.
The company re-opened a new improved version of the shop a month ago, with a café where the production area had been.
Bakery production equipment was moved to a new wholesale site in Whyteleafe, Surrey, as the company expands its wholesale business, owner Anthony Kindred told British Baker.
He said sales, including bread, were going well at the new look shop and café, which offers a range of drinks and lights meals, such as scrambled eggs on toast.
In addition, moving the bakery has allowed the company to expand its wholesale catchment area to East Grinstead, Dorking and New Covent Garden, taking on new customers.
It currently has two wholesale vans delivering mainly bread and rolls and will add a third in the near future.
Kindred, whose family have been bakers since 1620, said he was keeping an open mind about the future direction of the business, which has two shops as well as the wholesale business.
He commented: “The focus at the moment is wholesale, but we will look at retail opportunities. Things always change; there was no money in wholesale a few years ago and now it is going very well.”
Kindred’s Herne Hill shop was just one of dozens of businesses and homes that was submerged under a metre-and-a-half of water when an 88-year-old water main burst in August 2013.
Kindred is still waiting for the full insurance payout.
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