Bread 41, the popular Dublin city centre bakery, has achieved a global sustainability certification that its co-founder Eoin Cluskey says will help to underpin its growth as it seeks to add three to five new bakeries to the group over the next two years.
The company, which opened on Pearse Street in Dublin 2 five years ago, and is aiming to open a second outlet in Greystones, Co Wicklow, next March, recently became the 29th Irish company to achieve the B Corp certification, a global benchmark for businesses committed to environmental and social consciousness.
The company currently has 59 employees but Mr Cluskey expects it to get to more than 100 by the end of 2024, with the addition of the Greystones site, which is costing €1.5 million to develop out of its own resources.
Bread 41 has annual turnover of about €4 million, and generates profits of about €600,000, according to Mr Cluskey.
“We are always willing to invest in the future and the future is growth for us,” he said. “It’s just a matter of how we do it. Affordability is massive. So we’re probably looking at distressed assets ... we’ll open one more between Dublin and Greystones. And anywhere from town to Malahide along the train line would be ideal locations.”
The food company has carefully planned its next outlet in Wicklow. “In Greystones we took out the floor, we underpinned the whole building,” Mr Cluskey said. “We did a lot of stuff we didn’t have to do and people told us we were crazy and told us to take the old the building down and build a new one. No. It’s an old car garage, it’s been there for 70 years and the way we’ve constructed it, it will be there for 150 years more.
“We’ve structurally made it sound. It will be solar on the roof, we’ll capture the water coming off the roof that’s recycled through the building and we’ve insulated internally rather than externally because we didn’t want to take the look off the outside.”
Mr Cluskey said Bread 41 pays the living wage of €14.85 for full-time employees and offers a pension scheme for staff who have been with it for a year. “You can’t live in Dublin for less than that,” he said. “By bringing everyone to the living wage and paying the pensions was nearly a €100,000 cost to the company. [But] our retention rate is really big ... which helps the business grow. We’re not constantly caught in the trenches of retraining all the time.”
Mr Cluskey said Bread 41 sets aside 2 per cent of turnover for local causes. In the past two years, it has taught 3,000 children how to make real bread and it currently has a programme for teachers who want to upskill.
Mr Cluskey said the Pearse Street bakery makes about 4,500 croissants a day and about 1,000 loaves of bread. Almond croissants are its best seller.
It also has an upstairs restaurant, with Mr Cluskey saying the in-dining offering could be simplified next year. “We will simplify the offering downstairs. The restaurant game is extremely difficult. There’s not much money in it.”
On the value of the B Corp certification, he said: “It’s going to be very hard to operate without it over the next five years. I’m very conscious that there will be a day when I’ll need to borrow and I think a bank will be more inclined [to lend] with this accreditation.”
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