The Observatory of in-store sales of the Federation of Bakery and Pastry Companies (FEB) has just delivered its results regarding the sector’s activities in the fourth quarter of 2020.
They show a 16.1% drop in turnover compared to the fourth quarter of 2019. This concerns 140 production sites and nearly 1,200 integrated or franchised stores (employing 46,000 employees), members of the FEB.
In detail, while the turnover of the Bread and Pastry segments fell by 12.7% and 12.8% respectively over the period considered, those of the Viennese pastries fell by 19.7% and those of the catering segment of 18.6%. The declines are much more severe in the Paris region than in the East and West regions of France. Whether cumulatively or by major sectors (bread, pastries, pastry, caterer), all quarterly turnover has been below their benchmark index 100 (dating from 2017), since the first quarter of 2020 (as of exception of the pastries at 1is quarter 2020).
Overall, the FEB stresses that member companies “have lost between 30% and 80% of their turnover”. This decrease can be explained in particular by the fact that “many members provide out-of-home catering (CHR, company restaurants, universities), a sector which is experiencing significant declines in turnover” and that others “have been strongly impacted by the closure of airports, shopping centers and by the generalization of teleworking (-40% of turnover in Paris, -16% throughout France) while “the announcement of the curfew at 6 p.m. very significant economic consequences. Indeed, it is almost 30% of the turnover which is carried out from 6 pm, in particular in the large agglomerations ”.
Ask the public authorities
To find out more, the FEB has just carried out a survey which shows a deterioration in the situation of its member companies: 50% of them note a worsening of their financial situation following the second confinement and the curfew, and 57 % have recourse to partial unemployment.
In proportion, the fixed costs remain more or less the same and the organization of work has become more complex for these companies, 90% of which are very small and medium-sized enterprises. And if the measures put in place by the public authorities have made it possible to limit the damage, especially during the first months of the crisis, most no longer have sufficient resources to invest, innovate or only grow.
Suddenly, the FEB, through the voice of Magali Filhue, its new general delegate, asks the public authorities “To include the bakery sector in the S1 bis list as a sector dependent on out-of-home catering and to offer more flexibility to stores which so wish by allowing it to open every day of the week”. The bakery and pastry-making companies of the FEB have a turnover of € 8.2 billion, including € 2.6 billion from exports.
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