From milestones to anniversaries, difficult times and more optimistic ones, 2020 has been a roller coaster of a year for us at The Sussex Kitchen. Want a glimpse of what we’ve been up to? Read below.
Yes, it was a particularly challenging year, but not everything was doom and gloom: just this year we launched our webshop, and really started putting our name out in Sussex and beyond, as makers of great breads and supporters of local, organic, sustainably sourced produce.
We got more customers despite the pandemic, expanded our social media presence (have you seen how strong our IG game is?) and, thanks to you, managed to keep this small family business of ours alive and well -- so much so that we even grew our delivery team and bakery staff, not to mention welcome a new manager, Jo, just before Christmas.
We did lose a big chunk of our income, we won’t lie -- the temporary closure of so many pubs, restaurants and hotels we regularly work with undoubtedly had a big impact on our own revenue. But we pulled it together, and, as difficult as it was, managed to keep our 30 employees with us throughout these past 12 months. It’s the achievement we’re the proudest of.
We celebrated 10 years of business and expanded next door; got more flat tires and van problems than we could count; we didn't take summer holidays or proper breaks (we’ll take them next year!); worked tirelessly to adapt to the new measures, and kept putting the same amount of love and labour into each and every loaf or croissant.
We learned to smile and communicate with each other with our eyes, our faces covered by masks, washed our hands at least 100 times a day, perfected our Stollen recipe -- and you noticed! -- and had no Covid-19 cases among us, which has felt like a blessing and a huge relief.
We cracked on the radio and danced in the kitchen to take a break from the news, exchanged recipe ideas and told you a little bit about us on our blog. We took long walks -- more often than not to come to work -- and mastered social distancing. We also started dreaming of a future physical shop, or maybe a cafe, we’d like to invite you to sometimes in the future -- because things are starting to look brighter, and we can’t wait for what next year will bring.
