5-day week from April

Staff shortage: Saturday is out at the Ofen bakery

From April, the bakery run by Agnes and Bernhard Eichler will keep the oven and lights off on Saturdays.(Bild: Markus Wenzel)

A tight staffing situation is forcing the traditional Eichler bakery to make adjustments. From April, the head office and the three branches in Linz (Upper Austria) will only be open from Monday to Friday. After more than 70 years, the oven will soon be switched off on Saturdays.

Leonfeldner Straße 209 in Linz: Here in the flagship store of Feinbäckerei Eichler, customers sit down for breakfast today, Saturday, while others stock up on pastries, bread and pastries for breakfast or the rest of the weekend.

It is one of the last regular Saturdays on which the family business is still open here and in its three other branches in Linz-Urfahr. This is because in April, the bakery run by Agnes Eichler and her husband Bernhard will switch to a five-day week. "We will then be there for our customers from Monday to Friday," says Agnes Eichler.

"Where are you?" The shop window of the branch in Leonfeldner Straße also indicates that staff are needed.(Bild: Markus Wenzel)

The shortage of skilled workers, the search for a qualified employee for the bakery, which has been going on for a year and has so far been in vain, upcoming retirements and thus an increasingly thin staffing level - all this has led to the decision.

We had to make a fundamental decision: To carry on as before and take the risk of possibly being the last Eichler generation, or to be brave and continue to provide you with bread & pastries five days a week, full of motivation.

Information der Feinbäckerei Eichler an ihre Kunden

"An emotional step"
"We didn't take this decision lightly," says Agnes Eichler, who speaks of an "emotional step": "Tradition also means continuity and security, but now we simply have to be courageous, become smaller and thus stronger again." And Bernhard Eichler adds: "The way it is now, it wouldn't have gone on for long."

Exceptions on the long weekends at Easter and Whitsun
On the flyers used to inform customers, they emphasize: "We are on a sound financial footing, which is mainly thanks to our loyal regular customers - but we want to give our bakers more family and leisure time at the weekend and also offer an incentive for potential applicants." In exceptional cases, the bakery will still be open on Saturdays. Eichler is thinking of the long weekends at Easter and Whitsun.