Oddies

[NewClaret]

Fingers crossed these talks come to something. Some hope at least which is great news.

[Poulton-le-Claret]

BBC News - Nelson-based Oddie's bakery chain 'may reopen half of its shops' - BBC News

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpwd2kgd2j5o

[Lip]

BBC News - Nelson-based Oddie's bakery chain 'may reopen half of its shops' - BBC News

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpwd2kgd2j5o

Yes,would be great if they cut their prices by half as well.

[NewClaret]

BBC News - Nelson-based Oddie's bakery chain 'may reopen half of its shops' - BBC News

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpwd2kgd2j5o

Great news, hope this comes off.

[Jakubclaret]

BBC News - Nelson-based Oddie's bakery chain 'may reopen half of its shops' - BBC News

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpwd2kgd2j5o

Hopefully I think some sort of demand still exists but without tweaking their retail strategy it wasn't sustainable probably why they are downsizing. Something needing changing that's for sure.

[Clovius Boofus]

I don't think they are downsizing. It's more of a case that someone might be coming in for some of their now-closed shops.

[ClaretTony]

Great news, hope this comes off.

Me too - I went past the shop on St. James' Street this afternoon and it's so sad to see it closed.

There's reference in that linked article to a lot of the staff having been there for years. It's definitely the case in the shop I mentioned.

[IanMcL]

Is no-one going to mention the rise in minimum wage and employment NI killing SMEs ?

Ingredients

[Dressinggown]

The flaky pastry beat all competitors.

Their Savoury was a sausage roll on steroids.

[AlargeClaret]

Reading between the lines it looks like due to the wide publicity of the closure , a few interested buyers are sniffing around at cherry picking the best sites . Looks like they might be selling the name and recipes etc . One interesting fact was their best sites crashing after Covid , where you’d usually expect your weaker locations to suffer .

[wilks_bfc]

Reading between the lines it looks like due to the wide publicity of the closure , a few interested buyers are sniffing around at cherry picking the best sites . Looks like they might be selling the name and recipes etc . One interesting fact was their best sites crashing after Covid , where you’d usually expect your weaker locations to suffer .

The one in Nelson Arndale use to always be busy, but Nelson is shocking now with nothing there so no surprise it’s closed

[mikeS]

Bring Back the Jam Slice!
Save our Pork and Pepper Rolls.
All part of our wonderful culture and heritage.

Oddies could teach the catering supremos at the football club here.

[ClaretTony]

Bring Back the Jam Slice!
Save our Pork and Pepper Rolls.
All part of our wonderful culture and heritage.

Oddies could teach the catering supremos at the football club here.

And the sad cake - how I miss that

[wilks_bfc]

And the sad cake - how I miss that

Large custard for me

[ClaretTony]

Large custard for me

They are up there wilks as was the vanilla slice - but no sad cakes since the pandemic

[bobinho]

Indicative of the times that Oddies goes, but the abomination that is “the pound bakery” opposite it is thriving.

Had the misfortune of trying some of their fare once - someone else bought it for me. Still not recovered. One bite was enough, absolutely disgusting.

[dsr]

Corned beef pasties, apple & cream turnovers, and the long-departed meringues. Especially the meringues. They stopped making those after covid - I bet that's why they went bust.

[Eloise Laws]

Big misses are the fig slice, sad cake, the large brown barm and the small crusty bagette.
Miss Oddies…

[ICL]

Flapjack for me

[Claretnick]

Pork and pepper rolls are a big miss for me

[Eyres_11]

They got greedy, £6 for a ham salad with the salad weighed out is a joke, if you missed out on the limited few sandwiches they made daily they wouldn't make another - I can go into a local buttie shop and ask them to make whatever I want, fresh and with much more in it for a much smaller price.

[MrTopTier]

Get baked, based in Leeds and soon to be opening in the Northern quarter in Manchester are charging £20 a slice, yes a slice, admittedly it’s a big slice of cake,but still. If Oddies rebranded as Artisan Oddies they would probably get away with the pricing.

[Burnley Ace]

Miss Oddies…

Was that a beauty pageant competition??

[Falcon]

Was that a beauty pageant competition??

plenty of soggy bottoms on show

[dandeclaret]

Corned beef pasties, apple & cream turnovers, and the long-departed meringues. Especially the meringues. They stopped making those after covid - I bet that's why they went bust.

And the apple charlottes… why did they disappear?

[Bow]

Deli to go in Clitheroe does fantastic stuff. The black pudding scotch eggs are a favourite

[billyhamilton82]

Corned beef pasties, apple & cream turnovers, and the long-departed meringues. Especially the meringues. They stopped making those after covid - I bet that's why they went bust.

Fully agree.

Hot savoury just out of the oven followed by a cream meringue and a fig slice with a brew.

[dougcollins]

Ingredients

Brexit.

[NewClaret]

Me too - I went past the shop on St. James' Street this afternoon and it's so sad to see it closed.

There's reference in that linked article to a lot of the staff having been there for years. It's definitely the case in the shop I mentioned.

Very sad to see an old, local business close, particularly for the staff.

That link was interesting because I didn’t know the reasons behind the closure or how close they were to being saved

Disappoints me really that the club wouldn’t consider saving an established local business like this out of administration with no liabilities when they need massive catering operations themselves. Could’ve provided an opportunity to properly control their supply chain and I bet the queues on the concourses would be a lot bigger than they are now if they had a selection of Oddies goodies.

[ClaretTony]

Very sad to see an old, local business close, particularly for the staff.

That link was interesting because I didn’t know the reasons behind the closure or how close they were to being saved

Disappoints me really that the club wouldn’t consider saving an established local business like this out of administration with no liabilities when they need massive catering operations themselves. Could’ve provided an opportunity to properly control their supply chain and I bet the queues on the concourses would be a lot bigger than they are now if they had a selection of Oddies goodies.

It was Haffner's who pulled out at the last minute.

Our club has outsourced its catering so would not be in any position to use them.

[Burnley1989]

Not sure we can blame Burnley FC for Oddies failing business model causing closure haha

[NewClaret]

Not sure we can blame Burnley FC for Oddies failing business model causing closure haha

Wasn’t suggesting for a second we could, just there are synergies whereby they could’ve benefited each other, and the club could’ve further strengthened itself community ties by supporting a local business/jobs.

Put it this way, I’d much prefer our food offering be Oddies than the **** Levy are serving up.

[ClaretTony]

Wasn’t suggesting for a second we could, just there are synergies whereby they could’ve benefited each other, and the club could’ve further strengthened itself community ties by supporting a local business/jobs.

Put it this way, I’d much prefer our food offering be Oddies than the **** Levy are serving up.

As I posted earlier, we outsourced the catering as we’ve done other areas of the club. I can see a company such as Levy wanting to use a small, local bakery such as Oddie’s.

[NewClaret]

It was Haffner's who pulled out at the last minute.

Our club has outsourced its catering so would not be in any position to use them.

Sure you may have told me that but I’d forgotten. Haffners x Oddies would’ve been brilliant.

Yes, which has been pretty disastrous if you ask me. Will spare this thread a rant on that, but presumably that contract has an expiry date that they could’ve worked towards.

Just my view but I think a lot more people would buy food and pay the prices if it were supporting local jobs and manufactured locally.

[NewClaret]

As I posted earlier, we outsourced the catering as we’ve done other areas of the club. I can see a company such as Levy wanting to use a small, local bakery such as Oddie’s.

Sorry, posts crossed. My point was that presumably we don’t sign contracts indefinitely and hopefully that outsourcing arrangement is under review.

I was all for it initially but I’ve seen no discernible benefit in terms of quality, pricing or service whatsoever.

[ClaretTony]

Sorry, posts crossed. My point was that presumably we don’t sign contracts indefinitely and hopefully that outsourcing arrangement is under review.

I was all for it initially but I’ve seen no discernible benefit in terms of quality, pricing or service whatsoever.

It will benefit the owners. There are a number of areas within the club that have been outsourced.

[NewClaret]

It will benefit the owners. There are a number of areas within the club that have been outsourced.

Yep, the American way. It’s absolutely not how I’d do things though.

[claretonthecoast1882]

Just my view but I think a lot more people would buy food and pay the prices if it were supporting local jobs and manufactured locally.

Yet people not buying the food and paying the prices are exactly the reasons they are no longer supporting local jobs on the high street. As has been said on here more people will pay the price and eat the quality of the pound bakery.

[brexit]

Heard this about oddies a couple of weeks ago. They used to sell a sandwich called the new yorker which had salad mayo bacon and chicken breast, which was quite popular - their version of a club sandwich?
Recently when purchased this product had loads of salad and the filling was similar to the bacon and chicken sandwich filler from Asda et al.
Apparently, the Wi-Fi was also appalling in all shops, and you had to wait ages for your card to be approved
I have no experience of oddies just passing this on.
As an aside, had a pasty and sandwich from Carrs in middlebrook last week, far superior to anything I had before in the UK but then again I live on Flammekueche from La Fignette.

Claude 3.7 Sonnet

[Stonehouse]

Sign on the shop near Weatherspoon that it’s reopening as Waterfields .

[Stonehouse]

IMG_1625.jpeg (237.35 KiB) Viewed 1128 times

[Eloise Laws]

Great news, especially for the staff. Think another 6 shops to reopen after this one. Waterfields have a website, so you can peek beforehand as to what might be available. Good Luck to them.

[Claretnick]

Great news, especially for the staff. Think another 6 shops to reopen after this one. Waterfields have a website, so you can peek beforehand as to what might be available. Good Luck to them.

https://www.waterfields-bakers.co.uk/pages/our-story

[Stalbansclaret]

Sign on the shop near Weatherspoon that it’s reopening as Waterfields .

Is that Colne ?

[ClaretTony]

IMG_1625.jpeg

Great news. That sign wasn’t there when I went past last week.

[ClaretTony]

Is that Colne ?

It’s the one on St. James’ Street in Burnley

[Big Vinny K]

The local model operated by Oddies was not really sustainable.
The high street is on its backside and there are a lot of reasons for this - cultural, social behaviour changes and of course financial recently with the world wide increases in energy prices and knock on impact to the cost of distribution, ingredients, wages etc etc.
Put together far less people walking into your shops to buy food and spiralling overheads and it’s virtually impossible for a business like Oddies to survive.

Sad for all the staff of course as it is in any situation like this.

As for Burnley FC helping out firstly I think they have enough problems of their own to sort out without this but secondly and more importantly it would still not have saved Oddies without them completely changing their own business model and operations to a more wholesale / contracting type one which you just would not even contemplate with a partner as flakey and vulnerable as a football club.

Burnley’s new outsourcing catering contract I believe was more to do with its strategy to grow corporate hospitality revenues rather than improve things in the concourse food which it clearly hasn’t.

The quality of the food in the Jimmy Mclroy stand under the new caterers is actually decent. The problem is that it almost £70 for essentially a bit of chilli or a burger / hot dog.

I have no idea what Levys were expecting in terms of turnover levels under the new contract but being relegated has got to be a big blow to both parties as the hospitality suites are half full at best most weeks and in terms of buying food it’s nowhere near even that as they have completely priced people out of it. From what I can gather from that contract there is no negotiation on the price of food either because whilst the club are prepared to significantly discount the price of access to the suites this season on a game by game basis (by more than 50% on the advertised prices) if you want to add food to the package they won’t discount this at all.

No idea what the contract length is with Levy but guess both parties and whoever signed the contract at the club will be hoping we get promotion and start filling the hospitality with people who have more money than sense !!

[ClaretTony]

By people with more money than sense, do you mean Everton fans when we play them?

[Big Vinny K]

By people with more money than sense, do you mean Everton fans when we play them?

Yep !!!
The suite was full for the Leeds game and the queues for the food were the biggest of the season. At least half the suite was Leeds fans and I’m assuming it was them mostly paying for the food as vast majority of the regular burnley fans will not pay those prices every week.

Just think it all changes in the EPL simply because of demand outstripping supply. The away allocation is so small that the next option for the fans is to pay for hospitality to see the game. If they had any sense though they would save themselves £60 per person and go out to eat in the fanzone where the food is every bit as good.

[ClaretTony]

Yep !!!
The suite was full for the Leeds game and the queues for the food were the biggest of the season. At least half the suite was Leeds fans and I’m assuming it was them mostly paying for the food as vast majority of the regular burnley fans will not pay those prices every week.

Just think it all changes in the EPL simply because of demand outstripping supply. The away allocation is so small that the next option for the fans is to pay for hospitality to see the game. If they had any sense though they would save themselves £60 per person and go out to eat in the fanzone where the food is every bit as good.

I’m told their fine dining area in the Longside is less than half full for most if not all games. Those making the decisions and coming up with the prices just don’t get Burnley.