THE owner of popular Danish bakery Brød says she goes as far as not to pay herself to keep her business going.
Betina Skovbro described to Dot Davies and James Williams on the BBC Radio Wales breakfast show on October 31 how unpredictable and difficult it is to keep a business afloat at the moment.
Ms Skovbro has three bakeries under the Brød brand – two in Cardiff and one in Penarth on Glebe Street.
The discussion came as Julie Palmer, regional manager of Begbies Traynor Group – a bank which specialises in corporate recovery - described how up to 40,000 businesses in the UK are under the red flag definition of “critical financial distress”.
Ms Skovbro told Dot how difficult it is to run a business at the moment.
“One week you are fine, next week we are not,” said Ms Skovbro. “You don’t know what bill is coming in and how big it is going to be.”
Ms Skovbro went as far as to say she will skip paying herself to keep her business afloat.
“I am the last in the queue to get paid when payroll comes. My family will survive somehow. I can eat bread.”
One of the issues Ms Skovbro flagged up was the extraordinary rise in energy bills, a concern echoed by one of the owners of popular tapas restaurant in Penarth, Bar 44.
In January, Natalie Isaac described how, in the wake of rising energy costs, her restaurant was forking out £10,000, a rise of £8,000 compared to their old energy bill payments of £2,000.
Ms Skovbro described the chaos of fluctuating prices in the current market.
“It is hard to guess what is coming next,” said Ms Skovbro.
“Ingredients prices change day to day. Our flour is up 70 per cent. I had an electricity bill of £13,000 last month. I normally have energy bills of around £2,000.”
Despite the adversity facing business owners right now, Ms Skovbro says she’s not about to quit.
She finished by telling Dot: “We are doing well. We are lucky, but you do not know what tomorrow brings. It is extremely scary.”
You can listen to BBC Radio Wales breakfast show 7am to 9am Monday to Friday and on the iPlayer.
To find out more from Begbies Traynor Group, click here.
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