The Authentic Bread Company has taken delivery of its first 7.5-tonne truck to help meet increased demand wholesale customers.
The award-winning Gloucestershire-based craft baker has seen a significant growth in its home delivery businesses through the lockdowns and has now taken on a Fuso Canter 7C15 from Rygor Commercials to support its two largest customer deliveries.
Family-owned The Authentic Bread Company has also just relocated to new premises at Longhope, which are three times the size of its previous home, having previously grown from a converted garage alongside founder and MD Alan Davis’ family home in 1995.
The Authentic Bread Company had previously ordered two curtainside-bodied 3.5-tonne Mercedes-Benz Sprinter chassis cabs from Rygor, with the latest of these was retired to make way for the Canter.
Alex Davis said: “We’d been expanding steadily and having long since outgrown our previous base had already resolved to move to new, bigger premises. However, the Covid pandemic prompted a further spike in demand.
“At one point last year our sales were 400% up on the corresponding period 12 months earlier. The good news is that our major customers appear to have retained much of the new home delivery business they took on during lockdowns – once people have tasted our delicious, wholesome products, they invariably come back for more,” Davis added.
“The Canter’s impressive carrying capacity has been instrumental in enabling us to meet all of this increased demand. We work the vehicle hard – it’s contracted to cover a quarter of a million kilometres over three years, and runs constantly between our bakery and customer locations in Andover and Devon.”
