Brisbane bakeries battle to make dough amid rising costs

Fears are growing for the futures of humble boutique bakeries across Brisbane following two high-profile closures this week, with the prices of cake, bread and croissant-making staples going through the roof.

Lachlan and Kylie Scott owners of Flour & Chocolate at Northgate. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen/Courier Mail

Small Queensland bakeries could be at risk of closure due to soaring ingredient costs, staff wages and changing customer habits.

Bakery owners are reporting staples such as sugar, milk, eggs and butter have risen by as much as 77 per cent since before Covid, crushing their profits and forcing a growing number of operators to shut up shop permanently.

This week saw the shock collapse of leading Brisbane bakery empire BCN Events Group, behind popular outlets Mica in Newstead, Mica Express in Brisbane’s CBD and King St Bakery in Bowen Hills, with liquidators called in; while Brisbane’s Brewbakers announced it would close after more than 30 years citing a critical skill shortage and slim profit margins. Another Brisbane favourite, Cake and Bake in Newstead, owned by local baking doyenne Jocelyn Hancock, also terminated its operations in February this year.

Flour and Chocolate doughnuts.

Co-owners of top Brisbane bakery Flour and Chocolate, Lachlan and Kylie Scott, said turning a profit had never been so difficult.

“We’ve had to increase prices because we’re getting that impact from all levels, whether it’s electricity or insurances, or ingredients, all that has increased quite dramatically over the past year or so,” Ms Scott said.

She revealed since 2019 caster sugar had gone from $1040 per tonne to $1865 per tonne, eggs had risen $36 to $74 per crate, milk had increased 46c a litre, while butter had soared 37 per cent.

Wages had also significantly increased, while consumer spend was decreasing as customers bought less items or less frequently.

“There’s just not a lot of money coming in, but there’s a lot of money going out,” Mr Scott said.

Owners of Brisbane’s Cordelia Sourdough Bakehouse, NYC Bagel Deli, and Superthing, Ania Kutek and Eddy Tice, were also feeling the pinch of rising costs and consumers spending less.

The pair said wages were putting the most pressure on their businesses, up seven per cent last year and looking like increasing the same amount this year.

“We just have to put up prices – we don’t have a choice,” Mr Tice said.

“We can’t pay for it out of our own pocket because we’re already operating off a slim margin, so yeah, it’ll just be it will be more expensive for our customers and then we might see a decrease in sales.”

Despite navigating the industry challenges, Toowong-based Riser Bakery, in Brisbane’s west, has managed to grow its operation since opening in 2022.

“We’re actually getting busier. We had our busiest week we’ve ever had last week,” said co-owner Tom Cooney.

He said the business was dealing with soaring ingredient and operation costs by passing those increases onto customers.

“Pretty much every time we have an ingredient cost go up, we adjust our prices accordingly,” he said.

“We don’t like doing it, but we’re doing it because it’s actually the only way to continue doing business.”