•••6••• Branchennews Practical ideas for business success Paradigm shift in the bakery industry by trend talks, practical demonstrations and discussion panels. “Of course, there will also be enough time for personal discussions during the Bakers’ Trend Forum. We will have plenty to discuss after such a long period of social distancing when meetings were not possible at trade fairs or exhibitions,” said Tobias Pfaff, Head of the Academy of the German Bakery Trade in Southwest Germany. Bernd Kütscher, his colleague from the Academy in Weinheim, added: “We are currently experiencing enormous changes on the market. Some raw materials are sold out and prices have risen substantially. Energy costs have rocketed and some companies can barely afford to pay them. The shortage of personnel has never been so severe and customers are making savings wherever possible.” Courage to pursue difficult paths Bernd Kütscher will talk about precisely these changes during the Bakers’ Trend Forum. “I want to provide certain orientation and try and help colleagues to deal with the challenges.” According to Kütscher, the industry is currently experiencing a period of cleaning up and scrutinisation. He is addressing precisely these areas with his recommendations: companies must scrutinise their own portfolio, condense their product range in order to reduce raw material consumption, energy needs and personnel requirements, and concentrate onwhat really constitutes the company. Kütscher has a clear message: “We are now experiencing a paradigm shift. Anyone who manages to cope with this change can look forward to a golden future.” He will use some companies as examples of how this change can be achieved. Another way to counteract the shortage of skilled workers is through the purposeful use of technologies and digitalisation. “This topic has gained significant momentum due to the corona crisis,” said Stefan Körber, Managing Director of the Regional Association of Guilds of Württemberg Bakers. For example, cashless payment transactions are nowpossible nearly everywhere. Intelligent systems are being used to an increasing extent for efficient personnel deployment planning and help to avoid excessive returns. “Digitalisation provides an opportunity to rethink operational processes and make them better and more efficient. In addition to numerous changes in production, there will primarily be new communication channels in the interaction between production, sales and the company’s customers. For example, robots are being used successfully as serving staff in the first café areas,” added Körber. Training of bakers has more to offer “The shortage of skilled workers in our industry will be one of the major challenges in the next few years. Action must therefore be taken here,” said Stefan Körber. The bakery trade is already running various campaigns to publicise training in the bakery trade. “The website ‘Back-Dir-Deine-Zukunft’ (Bake Your Future) has been created for instance. Interested persons can find information about training and companies can publicise training places on this website. The government is also providing financial support to companies which recruit apprentices who fulfil certain conditions. “A great deal has happened here in the last few years.” Although they are still in their early 20s, Tina Reicherter and Susanna Rupp have already travelled a great deal. The entire industry is now talking about them. After successfully completing their training, they both took part in the regional competition and then the national competition for bakers. Anyone winning these competitions has the opportunity to compete against the best in the world. This was the case with the two young female bakers. “I actually only wanted to demonstrate what I had learned. I didn’t expect us to go so far,” emphasised Reicherter. For Susanna Rupp, however, winning the World Championship was her clear ambition. “It was necessary to defend the title as the Young Bakers World Champions for Germany. For this purpose, we prepared intensively for 8 weeks at the Academy of the German Bakery Trade inWeinheim,” said Rupp. “Our colleagues from the industry and even the German national team encouraged and supported us in this respect.” The hard training paid off: Rupp and Reicherter took first place in the competition ahead of colleagues from France, Spain, Sweden, Chile, Singapore, Iceland and Vietnam. This was a great success for the two women. “The recognition and confirmation by colleagues for this achievement are enormous,” said a delighted Tina Reicherter. Tina Reicherter and Susanna Rupp will attend the Bakers’ Trend Forum during südback to talk about their experiences and explain everything that training as a baker has to offer: “A large number of young people are faced with the decision as to how they want to shape their life in future, but do not know how varied the training in a bakery shop can be. And not just the fact that craft work provides numerous opportunities for creative development. Intercompany training courses, also abroad, are now quite common. This is inconceivable with an office job,” said Tina Reicherter. Together with her colleague, she has already proved that life after an apprenticeship can at least be just as exciting. Fewer returns thanks to clever customer retention Thomas Backenstos, a lecturer at the Academy of the German Bakery Trade in Southwest Germany, will examine the problem of food wastage during the Bakers’ Trend Forum: In his opinion, bakeries are already very active and can come up with some ideas to largely minimise or reuse returns. “However, the problem of excessive food wastage is often caused by private households. They account for more than 50 per cent of left-over food. We therefore want to encourage our customers to personally reuse bread remnants and left-over bread rolls,” emphasised Backenstos. His suggestion: instructions for curd balls, bread pudding, bruschetta and other recipe ideas should be printed on postcards and actively given to customers when talking to them. The ideas can also naturally be shared via the bakery’s social media channels and published on a website. “Even short videos for the recipes can be produced quickly,” added Backenstos. Aural enjoyment – baking bread is a trend topic in podcasts The corona pandemic triggered a real craze for baking among many hobby bakers. Some colleagues made use of the sudden rise in interest in fresh baked goods and examined it in a podcast for instance. Ingmar Krimmer from Krimmers Backstub‘ in Untermünkheim is one of these colleagues. Together with his friend and colleague David Haas, he created “Nachtschicht – den Back- & Genuss-Brotcast” (Night shift – the baking and enjoyment bread cast) in November 2020. Every week they share their knowledge, tips and tricks relating to bread baking, and invite guests from the bakery industry to take part in a discussion. “The aim of our podcast is to modernise the bakery trade through up-to-date methods. Customers are really celebrating this here with us in a rather rural region,” said Krimmer. Since it is now possible again, he recommends that his industry colleagues continue maintaining cusHot topics such as the shortage of skilled workers, resource conservation and customer retention will be the focal points of the Bakers‘ Trend Forum during südback 2022 Foto: Landesmesse Stuttgart GmbH Back to südback Foto: Landesmesse Stuttgart GmbH Continued from Page 1 Read more on page 7
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