The current coronavirus pandemic is forcing businesses, big and small, to adapt. The temporary closure of shops, cafes and restaurants provides a real challenge for business owners. However, a number of businesses are providing great inspiration by diversifying and continuing to trade throughout these strange and uncertain times.

Crwst demonstrates great resilience in their ability to innovate and adapt their business to serve their local and wider community. Through expanding their online products, customers can now enjoy a taste of Crwst at home. They are just about keeping up with demand for their ‘Stay at home - Bake at home kits’. The kit is comprised of ingredients and recipe cards for their salted caramel cookies, Welsh cakes and bara brith (it even comes with a baking tray).

“After closing the café and bakery due to the Covid-19 outbreak, we knew we’d have to adapt and evolve our business in order to stay afloat and keep our loyal ‘Crwstomers’ satisfied. We began a takeaway service for the first week subsequent to closing however with the severity of the situation becoming more apparent, we believed the responsible thing to do was to close altogether.” – Rhodri, Crwst.

They then decided to focus their attention on the online shop. Since people couldn’t drop in to Crwst anymore to purchase the daily bakes and cakes, that was when the idea of the ‘Bake at Home Sets’ came to fruition - a fantastic way of staying connected to customers and the local community until it is safe to reopen the doors.

“As we are primarily a café, we have lost almost all of our trade due to the pandemic. The furlough scheme and government grants have however been very important in preserving the future of our business and many others across the country.”

Crwst has teamed up with local business Myrddin Heritage. They too had to adapt a new business strategy and now deliver food boxes comprised of their own meat based products and locally sourced produce to homes from very local to as far as Cardiff. For the last 6 weeks Crwst have been supplying the bread for these boxes as well as their Chocolate Hazelnut Spread.

Crwst also collaborated with Hiut Denim, a Cardigan based jeans manufacturer who are producing scrubs for frontline workers in the NHS. They are donating £5 for every ‘Stay at home – Bake at home’ sold and to date have raised over £2100. Crwst hopes that this set will encourage people to stay at home while also raising money for a great cause.  

“The ‘Bake at Home Sets’ have been a big success for us and we hope to not only continue but also expand our range of products after the crisis has subsided.”