Cape Town - One of Cape Town’s most famous confectioners is in trouble.
Charly’s Bakery, made popular by the TV show Charly’s Cake Angels which aired on SABC3 and the Food Network on DStv, is one of many food stores in the Mother City hard-hit by challenges ranging from falling sales to fear driven by the Covid-19 pandemic, and the subsequent national lockdown.
The warning signs started to flash at the start of the year, according to bakery co-owner Jacqui Biess. “As a result of the TV show, business is probably 40% tourism and 60% locals and from January we had already started noticing a big drop in tourists visiting Cape Town and the bakery,” she said. “That was the first inkling of what was coming. By February, our turnovers had dropped substantially because there was a lot of fear.”
Biess added: “We started making preparations at that time. We had daily meetings with small groups of our staff, taught them exactly what they had to do, how they had to sanitise, wash their hands, how to not shake hands, all the hygiene protocols that were necessary. In fact, one of our staff who’s highly immuno-compromised, we booked off already because it was too dangerous for her to be here.”
Picture: Supplied
Following the start of the lockdown, bakery staff had to be placed on unpaid leave owing to the lack of cash reserves. Beginning in January, Biess, who owns the bakery with her two daughters Alex and Daniella, did not take salaries home, to mitigate the shortfall, and filed papers to the UIF on behalf of employees.
According to Biess, out of the 25 bakery employees only six had managed to receive payouts from the UIF to date.
This comes as other businesses have complained about the fund failing to make payments to employers.
“Everyone’s freaking out, messaging us and asking what’s happening and we have absolutely no answers because we can’t get through on the toll-free number,” Biess said. “We’ve emailed support, we’ve submitted our payroll.
“And then of course, there is the case of our foreign employees.”
To help raise funds, the bakery has embarked on a 45-day campaign to gather rewards-based donations.
People who donate can qualify for cake vouchers, merchandise and DIY cupcake kits, as well as request video messages and online baking classes.
To date, the campaign has brought in more than R150 000 in donations.
“Unfortunately, at this stage, being able to only do deliveries with the amount that the delivery companies are charging, it is not viable to open,” Biess said. “We will lose 23 percent of every sale to every company and we’re already not doing that well.
“Unless we can find a way around it and explore other delivery options. All I can say is that we’re going to let everyone know the second that we are open.”
Weekend Argus
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