It will come as no surprise that we’re having to increase the price of our bread from this week. While most of the cost of a loaf of bread is our labour, other costs have increased significantly recently to the point where we need to pass some of them on.

Here are our new prices.

	Old	New
White Sourdough – Large	£3.50	£3.75
White Sourdough – Small	£2.20	£2.50
Wholemeal Sourdough	£3.50	£4.00
Spelt Sourdough	£3.50	£4.00
Sourdough Tin	£3.50	£3.75
Sourdough Special	£2.50	£3.00
Rye – Large	£3.50	£3.75
Rye – Small	£2.20	£2.50
Rye Special	no change	£3.00
White Tin	£2.20	£2.50
Multigrain Tin – Large	£2.20	£2.50
Multigrain Tin – Small	£1.10	£1.20
Stirchley Loaf – Large	no change	£2.00
Stirchley Loaf – Small	no change	£1.00
Honey Oat	£2.00	£2.50
Focaccia	£2.00	£2.50
Sourdough Focaccia	£2.00	£2.50
Baguette	no change	£2.00
Sourdough Baguette	£2.00	£2.50
Fruit Loaf	no change	£3.50
Bloomer	no change	£2.20
Ciabatta	no change	£2.00

Naturally we thought a lot about what to increase and by how much. What follows is a glimpse into that process.

One of the key issues in the world of Real Bread is how to keep it affordable. We believe that good bread is worth paying a fair price for and that factory bread is only cheap because the true costs are hidden. But it is also vitally important that real bread is within reach of as many people as possible.

Last month Molly and Rach went to London for the Real Bread For All conference, looking at how small, local bakeries like Loaf can make Real Bread affordable and accessible for people on lower incomes. On the other hand bakeries have be economically sustainable and ensure that neither people or their products are undervalued.

There were no easy answers but they came back buzzing with ideas, one of which we’re planning to roll out over the next few months. And it was a good reminder that we’re already doing something to keep bread affordable…

Our Stirchley Loaf is an unassuming loaf of bread but it’s very important to us. It’s a simple, yeasted loaf made with a blend of white, wholemeal and rye flour with grated potato added for softness. Because there’s no tin involved we can mix, shape and bake it with the minimum of work and keep the cost down as much as possible. It’s not a lesser bread, but it is much more accessible.

We made the decision a while back that we will always charge £1 for a small and £2 for a large Stirchley, and that the ingredients will not change in quantity or quality. No shrinkflation here. As costs increase the Stirchley will be subsidised to keep it at this price as long as possible.

Meanwhile the majority of our other breads are going up. Some price variations are based on ingredients and there are a couple of overdue corrections, but it’s fairly equitable across the board. This mostly reflects our electricity bill which is more than doubling this year, and given that’s what powers the oven there’s not much we can do about it! (Other than continue to fight for systemic global socioeconomic change, of course.)

Thank you for continuing to buy our bread and keep us trading. As our prices are forced to increase we will continue to work to make Real Bread as affordable and accessible as we can, with your support.