Sasko bread shortages over the weekend left many supermarket and shop shelves empty. Although shortages have eased, the situation has left many speculating about their cause.
Sasko bread shortages over the weekend left many supermarket and shop shelves empty. Although shortages have eased, the situation has left many speculating about their cause.
According to Charles Opperman, manager of the bakery at Pick n Pay, they did not receive any bread from Sasko on Saturday 15 March and received only a small delivery on Sunday 16 March.
Pick n Pay bakery did its best to compensate for the lack of Sasko bread over the weekend.
“We battled but we managed,” said Opperman. “We did lose out on some sales as many people will only buy branded bread,” he said.
Pick n Pay finally received Sasko deliveries on Monday 17 March.
Terry Horner, who works at a grocery store at Grahamstown Motor Services, said that he called Sasko’s local distributor after reading newspaper reports that claimed that a strike was anticipated.
“The local distributor said that the strike had been averted but that some of the deliveries might be a little late,” said Horner, who had to buy some loaves from Pick n Pay to sell at the store.
“It cost me as I had to go to a third party rather than simply receiving the bread from Sasko,” he added.
Food and Allied Workers' Union (Fawu) media officer Dominique Swartz said that according to the union’s Eastern Cape provincial secretary, Luyanda Matuntuta, there “is and was no strike”.
“There are discussions around retrenchments at the moment,” Swartz added.
Meanwhile, Sasko in Port Elizabeth refused to comment.
