Shop sells unbaked pies to counter soaring bills

Measures Butchers is to sell unbaked pies to cook at home to save on energy costs

A shop is to sell unbaked pies in a bid to reduce its soaring energy bill.

Measures Butchers in Brampton, Cambridgeshire, had said its latest electricity bill, which had risen from £898 per month to £4,220, would make business "unsustainable".

In a Facebook post it asked customers if they would be prepared to buy unbaked pies to cook at home.

Owner Christine Baughen said they would go ahead with the plan after an "amazing community response".

The village shop cooks thousands of pies every week

Measures, which has served the village near Huntingdon for 38 years, said the numbers of pies it cooks every week is "in the thousands" with prices ranging from £3.25 to £7.50.

It currently runs two 11kw ovens for at least nine hours a day to bake them, before they are transferred to a blast chiller to cool them down before being put into the refrigerated counter.

The company said customers then reheat them at home which takes the same amount of time as it does to bake them in the first place and was "purely and simply a waste of energy".

In its post, it said the rising electricity costs were "unsustainable for us and will soon put the business into a loss making situation".

"We have to take action but are extremely reluctant to increase prices in times which we know are difficult for everyone," they said.

Measures said it is now "much more confident" the shop can stay open

It added that buying unbaked pies would "help keep the price down" for the customer and "help keep our business sustainable from both an economic and eco-friendly point of view".

The post received hundreds of positive comments and the shop has also had other supportive messages and emails.

Ms Baughen told the BBC: "We had an amazing community response, in the thousands, some of which have made me cry with pride.

"People were just saying how amazing the products are and how they wouldn't want to lose us and that's really humbling.

"All we want to do is carry on running our business and serving people the best products that we can at a price people can afford."

She added they hoped to go ahead "within the week" after organising sustainable packaging and undergoing tests that will enable them to add a shelf life to the instructions.