The Irvine’s Bakery store in Kilbirnie will cease operating in the town on Friday, May 31.
It was a decision not taken lightly by business owner Maurice Irvine, who says that a lack of production staff has driven the move.
He says that staff at their production hub in Beith have been shorthande
d for more than a year and that a “tough decision” had to be made.
It is hoped that a majority of staff from the branch on Kilbirnie’s Main Street can be relocated to the remaining Irvine’s branches, in Beith and Dalry, which will be unaffected and remain open as usual.
at essence, we don’t have enough production workers at the bakery, according to Maurice. We’ve had a staffing shortage for much longer than a year.
“We have suffered with the lack of skilled bakers in the industry. All we needed to do was adjust and make due with what we had.
“Hopefully, we can accommodate the majority of the employees from other branches and minimise the need for redundancies.”
“We have excellent staff members. Simply put, we don’t have enough manufacturing workers to staff the Beith bakery.
“It’s simply not helping us; demand is outpacing supply. We’re really having trouble keeping up, but I have to consider the production crew that is there. They’re trying their hardest.”
He went on to say that the lack of competent workers is becoming a bigger issue in the industry and that efforts to hire more people for production have not been enough to keep up with demand.
“It is a shrinking profession,” Maurice said. In the Garnock Valley, we truly are the sole bakers. In the past, Beith had six bakers, while Kilbirnie and Dalry likely had a like number.
We are currently paying the price for the lack of talented bakers and the decline in the number of persons entering the field.
It’s difficult to stay up. None of us are getting any younger, including me.
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