THE TRUE PRICE OF DUTCH BREAD

Client

Bakkerij van Vessem is a well-established Dutch bakery chain with shops all over the province of Noord-Holland. Over 110 years, the bakery has had a consistent focus on creating unique and healthy baked goods. 

Project description

In 2018, Bakkerij van Vessem wanted to have more insight into the true costs of their ‘Hollandsch Brood’. For this first project, we calculated the true costs of their ‘Hollandsch Brood’ and compared this to a constructed average bread sold in Dutch supermarkets. Standard bread usually relies on imported ingredients as well as conventional agricultural methods. Our work showed that the bakery’s true costs lie much lower than the industry’s average true costs. 

We have expanded our collaboration with Bakkerij van Vessem over the years. In 2021 this resulted in the bakery’s first societal impact report. This report describes Bakkerij van Vessem’s value creation model and the value to society created by the bakery. Importantly, the report was written such that the language used is accessible to all such that all the bakery’s customers can read about the bakery’s impact.

Benefits to the client

Firstly, Bakkerij van Vessem got a better insight into how its true costs are computed and how it creates value for different stakeholders (specifically, the bakery’s customers, suppliers, the environment, society and its own employees). Secondly, Bakkerij van Vessem can communicate (for example, to its customers) about its value creation to society. This helps build engagement with the local community. Thirdly, the bakery can steer on maximizing its positive and minimizing its negative impact on society to become a truly impact-driven bakery.

The publication is in Dutch

The customer was working with the Impact Institute under its former name, True Price