Guest Blog: Emma's Bread by Bike

Like many other small retailers across the UK, the Boatyard Bakery, located on Exeter’s ship canal, was faced with immediate lockdown on Friday 23rd March. But instead of closing their doors completely, Emma Parkin and her small crew of dedicated bakers came up with a cunning plan. Here she tells us how they adapted quickly to the changing times...

The idea... 

When we moved down here three years ago, we had to work out a way of delivering our bread to the small retailers and cafés we supplied in the city centre. Luckily, we found a sustainable means of doing so in the form of an electric cargo bike fondly christened Matilda. Now we don’t have most of those wholesale outlets, her new role is to make home deliveries for those self-isolating or unable to go shopping for themselves. What that meant in practice was jumping on board with technology and coming up with an online ordering service almost overnight. With lots of help from multiple people, we’ve got our bakery online and people are getting their favourite loaves delivered up to three times a week!

This type of green delivery service is common in many other countries in Europe and towns in the UK, according to Jenny Ryding from Co-Deliveries. "There’s no pollution, no noise and we can easily manoeuvre round city streets using Exeter’s network of cycle lanes. I would say that we are reducing the traffic  - but obviously at this point in time, COVID-19 has done that for us!"

Back at the bakery...

Back at the bakery there was more work to be done, including how to run our business and who was going to work. The bakers have been divided into two separate teams who split the week’s work between them, minimising the risk of infection.  The popular café has closed but customers can come and buy bread and a takeaway drink one by one during the morning.

Being on the Quay we’ve seen a lot of people exercising, cycling, walking and running, whilst fitting in a trip to the bakery too. The community spirit has been tremendous and my crew has got a lot out of helping others whilst doing what they love - we now know lots of our customers by name!

Some other small local producers and food retailers have also had to adopt new ways of reaching customers, particularly those in the vulnerable or elderly category.  Examples include Shillingford Organics vegetable box scheme based at Shillingford Abbot who have experienced a huge increase in home deliveries. Dan Taylor, from the Grocer on the Green in Exeter, has closed his shop for logistical and safety concerns and now operates a busy home delivery service. It might sound obvious but changing the way a business works virtually overnight is not straightforward and is also reliant on their suppliers still being able to function...

Order your groceries from The Boatyard Bakery online, for click & collect or delivery by bike!