the idea

We’ve been thinking about doughies; trying to shape what we did during the bakers dozen experiment into a core sustainable business idea.

And this is that idea (in pictoral and word form!).

Here’s the basics:-

Community (You)

• Registers and log into the doughies website
• On the website you can subscribe to a weekly bread-bag delivery and tweak your delivery preferences
• Each week opt in and out to suit how much bread you need (and no ties so opt out or take a “bread break” at any time)
• Traders and events can subscribe to small batches (1 x 50kg bike load) using the same mechanism

Bakers (Us)

• Receive weekly bread bag orders
• Based on this prepare the right amount of dough from good local ingredients (just flour, water, salt and yeast)
• Bake the bread in a wood fired oven using local wood fuel

Baker Bikers (Us and You)

• Community can volunteer along with the bakers for a “baker biker slot” – to deliver the bread bags to the community (payment in bread)
• Baker bikers role is to arrive in time to unload oven, help pack the breadbags and then ride out in the local area to deliver bread to the community and/or local collection points

Money

• The community pays by subscribing to a recurring card payment, which will be taken on delivery day [v.similar to say a farmers vegbox like Riverford]
• This weekly income then pays the ingredient costs, the overheads and the baker wages
• Any surplus income goes into a community action pot [not for profit] which will be used for the community as voted by all

Why not just a regular Bakery setup?

High street bakeries unfortunately have been (and are) dying away to the big supermarkets. This idea is quite a different take on a bakery setup, but there are a couple of reasons why we think it will be effective where a regular high street bakery (and a supermarket) wouldn’t:-

• Low overheads – this idea doesn’t require expensive retail space;  it can be run from any decent kitchen / workspace
• Direct connection – both to and from the community to the baker and the baker bikers
• Waste reduction – having a known bread order each week allows the baker to bake to order which equals no excess production and no stale loaves lining a shop at the end of the day