Save on your bakery's electricity bill with adjustments and planning

Know your consumers

To begin the planning process, you need to be aware of consumers' preferences. There are many segments, and not all bakeries target every single one of them. Among the main ones are:

• Customers who buy freshly baked bread for breakfast. Some take the opportunity to buy the rest of the day's bread at the same time.
• Those who buy bread every day before lunch. Many make this purchase along with other products, and have a more or less flexible schedule within the morning and early afternoon.
• Customers who buy bread for an afternoon snack. This happens often in places where bread and pastries are consumed in the establishment itself.
• Last-minute consumers. It is common among those who, due to work schedules or other responsibilities, do not have another time to go and buy bread.
• For important clients such as educational, health and residential centres, restaurants, cafes, bars, etc. you may have to comply with the baking and delivery conditions established in the contract.
• Occasional customers. The reasons can be varied, such as the influx of tourists, people who buy bread to freeze, those who only consume bread at certain times, etc.

Most customer segments tend to value freshly baked bread very highly. The actual time you decide on to start up the oven may involve opting for one or more customer segments to the detriment of others.

The organisation of transport and storage

You first need to consider the space available for storage. Starting up the oven involves freeing up raw materials and generates finished products that need to be distributed or sold.

This requirement is sometimes a determining factor when it comes to deciding whether to purchase or lease the business premises. It is possible that having a few more square metres in a certain area may enable you to adopt a baking schedule that helps you to optimise electricity consumption.

You will also need to maintain a balance when it comes to transport. In many bakeries it is not easy to have a number of vehicles and delivery personnel to distribute the product. In that case, optimising routes can be very helpful because you can avoid wasting time and take advantage of energy savings opportunities.

Requirements for retail outlets

If you only sell in your own establishments, you can decide on the opening times.   If you supply intermediaries, they need to be taken into consideration. At the end of the day, they are the link that connects you to the end consumer. The most reasonable thing to do is usually to negotiate with them.

In this regard, electricity time bands can be an important feature in the negotiation. If you would like to request a tariff plan that suits you in order to optimise your electricity bill or for any other reason, certain conditions or requirements may need to be met.

Establish collective agreements

Collective agreements often include rules with regard to opening times, not only on a daily basis, but also during the week. For example, it is possible to set a day on which bread cannot be made or that in any case, if it is made it is with the voluntary acceptance of the worker. You should also bear in mind the distribution of hours between ordinary and overtime, and to balance all work schedules very well.

In any case, it is usually best to get legal advice. Each agreement has its own guidelines and these represent limits that will significantly influence opening times. However, there is usually a sufficiently wide margin to be able to optimise the time schedules for using ovens and electrical appliances.

 Job sequence

This is a crucial factor. The processes need to be perfectly well organised. Disrupting a task just so that it fits in with the time the oven is running is not a good idea. On the contrary, you should make sure that everything that happens before and after is in order.

In this regard, it is useful to use charts that enable you to know how much time you need for each task so you know how much leeway you have, which tasks are critical, how best organise yourself, etc. when planning your business.

The characteristics of ovens, other equipment and materials

The times when the bakery's ovens are working often determine the opening and sales hours. For example, if you have an oven with a large capacity for your demand, it would make sense not to bake too many batches. This technical factor may also restrict the number of segments you are able to address and as a result the opening times.

It is the same with other equipment and materials. A special case would be if you have solar panels and you need to calculate at what times you can best take advantage of self-consumption. To do this, it will also be necessary to study the installation of batteries.

In short, the electricity tariff is an important factor that can determine costs in the bakery, but not the only one. You should also keep an eye on your energy demand. Decision-making should always be balanced and flexible enough to be able to make hourly adjustments when necessary whenever there are changes in business conditions.

Endesa Empresas adjusts to your needs, and those of your business, with each of our tariffs. From Open Empresas, which you can use to choose the hours when you save and adapt them to your consumption habits, and Tempo, which offers a single tariff 24 hours a day or three different tariffs in accordance with off-peak, flat and peak time bands, to Open Click, the exclusive online tariff for SMEs and freelancers, with a 35% discount on the energy term for new customers, Monday to Friday, from 8am. to 12 noon (excluding holidays), and the Customised Tariff, for customers with high consumption in accordance with their needs.  Why not contract one of these or one of our other tariffs?