Flour & Chocolate Patisserie to stop selling sandwiches as industry faces grim reality

A popular bakery chain is reducing offerings amidst skyrocketing costs and shortage fears, as eateries across the country struggle to survive.

A well-known bakery chain in Brisbane has informed its customers that it will be reducing its offerings at three of its stores in an effort to cut “skyrocketing” costs.

Flour & Chocolate Patisserie said it expects to see the prices of eggs and chocolate “rise significantly” in addition to crippling cost pressures “including ingredients, rent, electricity, insurance.”

“As a consequence, Kylie and I have made one of the most difficult decisions throughout our time as small business owners to discontinue our sandwich section,” owner Lachlan Scott said in a public statement.

“While I can say we have been very proud of what we have been able to accomplish and provide, it is no longer a financially sustainable option for Flour & Chocolate to provide.

Kylie and Lachlan Scott at their shop Flour and Chocolate in Northgate. Picture: John Gass

“We will continue to focus on excellence in our core products — the items that we have been providing since opening in 2012, including our croissants, breads, pastries, cakes, and biscuits.”

Mr Scott added that the serving of toasted sandwiches will cease on June 22, hinting at potential staff implications.

“As a team, we will ensure that impacted staff members will be offered positions to the best of our ability,” he said.

“Flour & Chocolate will continue to supply filled croissants and all our other savoury items like our quiche, pies and sausage rolls moving forward.

Flour and Chocolate have made the difficult decision to close the sandwich section at each of its three stores. Picture: Facebook

“Please watch this space as we continue to manoeuvre through these difficult times, impacting us all.”

The news comes as fears of a national egg shortage increase due to an Avian influenza outbreak, and as rising costs threaten, and even force the closure of, other popular eateries across the country.

‘Bad a time as Covid’: Costs crush Aussie eateries

Many other hospitality businesses across the country have recently succumbed amid the economic downturn.

Just a week ago, a popular restaurant in Sydney, Lucky Kwong, headed by iconic chef Kylie Kwong, announced it was shutting down.

In recent months, the Botswana Butchery chain, which operated a high-end steak restaurant in three cities, went bust, with debts of more than $23 million and more than 200 staff sacked.

The last remaining NSW store of fast food chain Lord of the Fries appears to have closed earlier this month after the landlord repossessed the property.

Last month, after 18 years in business, Asian fusion restaurant Gingerboy shut down, blaming “market pressures since Covid lockdowns”.

Melbourne restaurant owner Boon Low says surcharges are necessary to protect his business from a Covid-level crisis. Picture: Google

A number of other restaurants have joined the growing pile of corpses, including Japanese chain Sushi Bay, Elements Bar and Grill and three stores in Sydney restaurant franchise Bondi Pizza.

Boon Low, the owner of the independent Victorian Dodee Paidang restaurant chain with four stores in greater Melbourne, recently said unpopular surcharges were his only way forward in a tough economic climate.

“I just want people to be aware of the fact that we are struggling, and it’s not blatant profiteering,” he told news.com.au.

“They’re trying to obviously squeeze everything back into inflation, but it’s been bad – this is as bad a time as Covid.”

“It’s brutal – it’s absolutely brutal.

“Our voices have been drowned out by the people who are angry and who are emotional, and so they should be – but the outlet shouldn’t be us.”

Egg shortage fears perhaps unfounded

Costco and Coles have recently limited the amount of eggs customers can purchase at stores across Easter Australia due to bird flu outbreaks on farms in Victoria.

Despite the limits, the industry and leaders say there is currently no reason to fret.

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said the poultry on those farms had been euthanised to prevent the virus from spreading more rapidly and becoming a bigger problem.

“There’s been about one million affected and euthanised, or in the process of being euthanised, which is about 4 per cent of the overall national flock, if you like, of egg-laying hens,” he said.

There are fears of a national egg shortage due to an Avian influenza outbreak, but industry leaders assure that there is currently no reason to panic. Picture: Mike Dugdale

“But the bottom line is that every day, Australia produces 18 million eggs, and there’s no risk to that supply stopping anytime soon.”

The incident also led Victorian Industry Minister Natalie Hutchins to provide assurances about national egg supplies and to caution against stockpiling.

“It’s a real challenge that there’s been a fifth farm identified with the avian flu,” she told Nine’s newspapers this week.

“But we don’t anticipate that there’s going to be an egg shortage.

“We do know that retailers are making decisions about putting limits in place of how many you can buy, very similar to during Covid with toilet paper.

“Sometimes when there’s discussions around shortages, it promotes people’s thinking to think that they need to stock up. They don’t need to stock up. There is still some very good supply.”

Despite store limits, industry leaders and politicians say Australia still produces 18 million eggs daily. Supplied

Australian Eggs, a leading industry body, addressed purchase limits being introduced on egg cartons on Monday, stating consumers “shouldn’t flip out”.

“These avian influenza incidents will cause some disruption to egg supply as retailers reorganise their supply, but purchase limits or patchy supermarket shelves do not indicate a nationwide shortage,” Australian Eggs Managing Director Rowan McMonnies said earlier this week.

Dr Louise Grimmer, a retail expert at the University of Tasmania, warned messaging around limits at stores could promote themes of “scarcity” despite that not appearing to be the case.

“The problem for shoppers when restrictions are placed on certain goods is obviously panic buying – as we witnessed with toilet paper during Covid,” she told news.com.au earlier this week.

“Eggs are not the type of product that should really be stockpiled, and the advice is that only a small percentage (around 2 per cent) of stocks have been affected.

“So the signal that Coles is sending is not really helpful for the industry or consumers as it reflects across the whole egg industry, which is largely unaffected.”