Bakeries in the city are hoping for the best this holiday season

With the food industry slowly recovering, bakers in the city are hoping for some improvement in business in the next couple of days due to Christmas and New Year.

“Though regular customers have been coming in, we have been doing only 30%-40% of our business so far. Bakeries are preferring to take orders and then begin baking cakes, rather than keeping them ready. Since plum cakes will remain fresh, they are being baked,” said P.P. Subramaniam, Tamil Nadu Bakers’ Federation.

C.N.R. Selvaraj, who runs Master Cakez in Anna Nagar, said over the past few months, the industry has had to rebuild confidence among customers. “All of us follow proper safety protocols since we deal with food. Customers are coming in and now have started asking for new varieties, which is a sign of things looking up. We have dates and coffee, apricot and raisin tea cake as new arrivals this year,” he said.

K.M. Abdul Salam, who runs Victory Brothers Bakery in Royapettah, said they expected a slow improvement in numbers. “Regular customers are coming in since we have been here for quite sometime. People are mostly picking up plum cakes since that is the flavour of the month,” he said. Mr. Subramaniam also acknowledged the fact that home bakers entering the market meant there were more players in the field than before.