Yiannis Zervas, a third-generation baker in Petralona, believes he is the last member of the family who will keep the business alive. [Nikos Kokkalias]
Yiannis Zervas gets up in the early hours every day, and by 4 a.m. he is already in his workshop, baking bread and preparing oat bars and sweets. It’s a routine he’s grown up with – first watching his parents, then hearing similar stories from his grandfather. His family opened its first bakery in Athens in the 1970s and has worked in the trade ever since.
Now 31, Zervas trained as a baker and renovated the family shop in Petralona in 2003. But since taking over, he fears the tradition may end with him. “In fact, I believe I am the last generation that will keep the bakery going,” he told Kathimerini.
A combination of soaring energy costs, inflation, rising rents in central areas and shifting consumer habits is threatening the survival of neighborhood bakeries – many of which have already been hit hard. According to data from the bakers’ association in Athens and the wider region, around 1,000 bakeries that produce their own bread have closed in the past three years. In total, some 3,000 bakeries, outlets, and pastry shops have shut down across the country during the same period.
‘We use an electric oven. When the war in Ukraine began, our costs rose by 300%. We couldn’t absorb that. Just as things were starting to stabilize, another crisis hit’
Zervas is not surprised. He himself has considered closing over the past four years. “Out of love for what I do – and stubbornness – I keep going. I remember helping my mother in the bakery from a young age. But the truth is, there are months when we operate at a loss,” he admits.
The biggest challenge, he says, is energy. Costs surged after the war in Ukraine and have risen again due to the conflict in the Middle East. Bakeries rely on energy-intensive equipment – ovens powered by electricity, oil, or gas, and large refrigeration units – making them highly vulnerable to price increases. “We use an electric oven. When the war in Ukraine began, our costs rose by 300%. We couldn’t absorb that. Just as things were starting to stabilize, another crisis hit.”
According to Zervas, recent developments have pushed costs up by another 40-50%, with more increases expected. Energy providers, he adds, have refused to offer fixed-rate contracts, leaving businesses exposed. “Our electricity bills are now two to three times higher than our rent.”
“The last electricity bill I received was €1,000,” says Dionysia Christou, who runs a bakery with her husband in Piraeus. Unlike many in the trade, Christou entered the field without prior experience. When the couple opened their bakery in 2010, it was a way out of financial hardship during the economic crisis – and it proved successful. Sixteen years later, however, they find themselves grappling with a new, geopolitically driven crisis.
Costs have risen across the board. “I specialize in sweets, and I can tell you that the price of chocolate is like the stock market – it’s gone up by as much as 60%,” she says. “Now I try to produce smaller quantities that last longer.”
The strain has forced difficult decisions. “We’ve reduced staff. We now have one assistant for a few hours a day and one part-time worker in the bakery. My husband and I cover everything else – from 7 in the morning until 8 at night. It’s extremely demanding, and I don’t know how long we can keep it up.”
At the same time, consumer behavior is shifting. Customers are buying less or visiting bakeries mainly on special occasions. Still, both Christou and Zervas say competition from supermarkets is not the core issue. “Bread simply isn’t profitable anymore,” Christou explains. “The margins on a loaf are minimal.” In her view, the sector is heading for a major transformation: “Those who survive will be the ones who specialize.”
“Artisanal baking, as we’ve known it, has no future in this country,” says Iasonas Kaplanis, president of the bakers’ association. “In 2010, there were 15,500 bakeries. By 2026, that number has fallen below 13,000.” Speaking from his bakery in Menidi, in western Athens, he describes a profession that demands relentless work – seven days a week, without breaks for holidays. “When that effort is no longer rewarded, people leave. Some family bakeries close because there’s no successor. I will discourage my own children from entering the trade.”
And yet, as a second-generation baker himself, Kaplanis watches the sector’s decline with deep frustration. He insists that traditional bakeries remain vital – offering quality products made with fresh, not frozen, dough, while supporting a wider network of suppliers, from flour and oil to butter and other raw materials. “We want to protect our businesses – and, at the same time, the most basic staple of the Greek household.”
