How can Christmas be just NEXT WEEK???!!!! It’s been nothing less than manic in Rex the last few months. A lot of triumphs, and as always a few struggles. So what are we celebrating during this festive time?
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- We’re on the telly!
Lots of lovely Rex customers know that we were involved in a few bouts of filming this summer, including most excitingly a serial looking at famous people’s locale and the foods they grew up with. Rex Bakery was asked to be part of Russell Grant’s feature. He grew up in Harefield, so the producers thought it would be a good idea to compare Chorleywood Bread process which was invented nearby, with the Real Bread that the Rex Baker specialises in. There was a generous 4 minute segment dedicated to Rex & baking, which sits on on our Vimeo account just now. It was a GREAT chance to show what the quality of artisan baking means for texture & ease of eating. We know very many customers, existing & new, watched it – the power of TV is incredible
- We’re on the telly!
Rex Bakery ‘My Life on a Plate’ from Rex Bakery on Vimeo.
We have been supplying this lovely cafe in 1 of our favourite nearby market towns for sometime now. As they have the space & morning capacity to offer bread, and we share many of the same principles & ethos, we have decided to start retailing from their shelves. It’s very exciting to start to try build your business & reputation all over again, provides many learnings. For instance, meeting lots of lovely Berko-ites who’ve just tasted the “Best sausage roll in the world” for the 1st time. Or are relieved to find organic, local artisan bread – made that morning! We have told residents that we’re Bucks Best Artisan Bakery – but not sure anyone in Herts cares that much! So it will take some time to establish ourselves, and of course we 1st have to get through..
3. Christmas!
This year in Rex we managed to get our beautiful & subtle (ok, we’re biased) lighted curtain sheets up in the window in the 1st week of December. We’ve just started new Rex shortbread Mince Pies. And of course stollen bites & Stollens are selling out as fast as we can produce them. Many of you have asked about Christmas opening times & Christmas ordering.
Our opening hours over Christmas:
Thurs 24th Dec 7-2.30.
Fri 25th, Sat 26th, Sun 27th Dec CLOSED.
Mon 28th 9-2.
Tues & Wed 7 – 5
Thurs 31st 7-1.30.
Fri 1st Jan CLOSED
Sat 2nd 8-4
It’s a great idea to order your Christmas & New Year bread & baked items in advance. We will bake a large range for 23 & 24 December, but if you would like to be assured of your order please
- pop into Rex and ask for an order form. Hard copies available in the next day or so
- click here for our Google doc order form link. You can copy the sheet, complete & bring back into Rex for payment
We are asking that all orders are pre-paid this year – it got very complicated last year & inevitably there were 1 or 2 that didn’t get picked up and others who were let down. We hope we simplified it! All the best sellers are available but please contact us at hello@rexbakery.com if there was something specific you were hoping for that isn’t there, and we will do our best to help
4) Dr Challoners Girls School Christmas Fayre
The Rex Baker donated his time to run Master classes in bread baking & biscuit making/ decorating. The Fayre raised >£14k which is fantastic as they are under-resourced versus many local schools and the classes were over-subscribed so a successful earner in their own right! And the Rex stall sold a LOT of sausage rolls, thank you Girls & your Families 🙂
5) Lots & lots of lovely TripAdvisor reviews
Following our last email inviting feedback, we were overwhelmed by the lovely comments & star ratings from so many of you. This is highly appreciated. We never forget you have a choice – and now SO MUCH choice in Little Chalfont! However, if you had anything you wanted to share with us, please don’t hesitate to contact us on hello@rexbakery.com. We do take feedback on board very seriously, we are still so small that it’s really helpful to us:)
And what’s been more challenging?
Well 1 challenge was that having run the numbers, and reviewed all the cost inflation we’ve tried to absorb in the past 3 years since Glenn first popped up – we realised we were overdue in putting through a price increase on some of our lines. We haven’t updated all of our products, we’ve been very careful to benchmark with everything else in multiple locations and really thought long & hard about this. Probably for too long! If Rex is to stay for the long term, we need to make a fair return 🙂 Any of us owners or staff are happy to talk to you directly if you wanted to understand any more about this decision.
Otherwise, happy Christmas ordering & see you before Christmas Eve 2.30!!!
