bread

New enterprise hub helps Oxfordshire co-operative

An Oxford company that makes bread from ancient forms of grain has used its loaf and become a co-operative, thanks to some free business advice and support from the newly-launched Co-operative Enterprise Hub.

The Oxford Bread Group (OBG) was founded in April by archaeological botanist John Letts and his wife Sally Lane. It now supplies 170 members of the local community with an Oxford Loaf – with its distinctive O and X design – every week, and demand is growing.

John, who spent some time working as a thatcher, was frustrated that the straw produced in the UK was too short for roofs – British wheat is engineered to be short and high-yielding and water read is being imported from as far away as China to do the job.

Using grains obtained from gene banks and traditional farmers from around the world, John started to grow unusual, tall-strawed varieties similar to those he found in medieval thatched roofs.

A worldwide search uncovered more ‘relict’ varieties that John is now growing in his Oxfordshire fields, along with the OBG crop that contains about 150 varieties that are grown in one field.

“Modern varieties produce bumper crops of high-protein grain, but only with the help of fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides and fungicides,” said John. “Planted organically those varieties will be choked by weeds and will yield very poorly. Biodiverse mixtures of older varieties stand a better chance of growing in an organic environment.”

John’s grain is now producing 1.3 tonnes of crop per acre, less than half that produced by conventional agriculture. However, he’s also getting about the same weight in thatching straw, when modern farming practices produce virtually none. And with thatching straw selling for £1,000 a tonne, against £300 a tonne for grain, he reckons the sums add up.

Meanwhile, demand for the bread is soaring. The grain has to go to the Stoneground Flour Company on the Isle of White for milling – the commercial mills won’t take such relatively small amounts – before the flour is returned to the Cornfield Bakery at Wheatley, where master baker Geoff Coleman bakes bread and biscuits.

Customers of the bread group pay upfront for their weekly loaf, and the bread is also available at the Cornfield Bakery, East Oxford Farmers’ Market and farm shops as far afield as Reading and Stow-on-the-Wold. Meanwhile, customers can buy bags of flour from Co-operative supermarkets across the region.

Oxford Bread Group approached the enterprise hub for help in becoming a co-operative and Jim Pettipher, from Gloucester-based Co-operative Futures, helped the company formulate its legal structure and work through the registration process.

The enterprise hub is a new initiative from The Co-operative to support and develop new and existing co-operative businesses, with the aim of growing the co-operative economy - worth £27.4 billion last year - and creating more ethically-led businesses, which currently employ 237,000 people across almost 5,000 companies.

Jim explained: "The hub allows existing co-operatives to apply for up to five days' worth of professional help and advice. Funding is also available to co-operative start-ups or companies that want to adopt the co-operative model.

"Co-operative Futures has taken a leadership role in the establishment of the this initiative, which will be rolled out nationally, and follows the lead given by Midcounties Co-operative Ltd over many years in supporting existing co-operatives and creating new ones."

For more information about Oxford Bread Group, log on to www.oxfordlocalbread.org or email info@oxfordlocalbread.org

Anyone interested in starting or growing a business that is a co-operative or community owned enterprise, or accessing help and support through the Co-operative Enterprise Hub, can contact Jim Pettipher at Co-operative Futures on 0845 456 2506 or at info@co-operativefutures.coop

Pictured: Oxford Bread Group -Sally Lane (left) and John Letts (right) with baker Geoff Coleman.