Hello everyone,

It was so good to see so many familiar faces at the Bournville Artisan Market yesterday. Apologies to everyone hoping to buy something that we already were sold out so quickly! We really need our own premisses back to enable us to bake more without all the unnecessary hustle. Thank you for baring with us 💛

Dorit is writing the weekly update from Loaf this week - please scroll down for a frustrating timeline of dealings with GSA…

Opening Times This Week:

🟢 Wednesday 19th August, 12pm to 3pm at Deadbeat, Stirchley

🟢 Thursday 20th August, 12pm to 3pm at Deadbeat, Stirchley

🟢 Friday 21st August, 12pm to 3pm at Deadbeat, Stirchley

🟢 Saturday 22nd August, 11am to 3pm at Deadbeat, Stirchley

No set lunch menu in August!

Apologies, but due to sharing the kitchen with Lap-fai Lee’s pop up at Deadbeat we will be assessing our lunch options each day and ask you to check our Instagram and Facebook stories for updates. Or just pop around to the shop!

Pre-order Info

➡️ Click HERE to pre-order bread and buns for Wednesday till Saturday. If you don’t want to pre-order that’s alright, we always have more to sell, but we try not to let anything go to waste, so pre-orders are very helpful.

➡️ Cut-off time for all pre-orders is 11am on the day before pick up!

Thanks so much to STEAMHOUSE for their continued support in letting us use a corner of their bakery in Redditch - we honestly do not know what we would have done without their generosity. 💛 💛 💛

Loaf – GSA Lease & Occupation Timeline

Lovely Friends and Customers of Loaf,

We are running a bit out of ideas what to do about GSA’s approach to working with us, which feels very much like actually working against us.

You amongst many other people, keep asking us questions like when the new building will be ready, when we will have a date to move in and if we will be able to finally announce upcoming cookery school course dates soon.

And the answer is we simply don’t know. Every meeting with GSA leaves us with more questions then before and the feeling of them living in a different interpretation of time and accountability. They know we don’t have another place to move into, they own the space we worked on for so many years and created with them as a partner for so many years. This building is a space we’ve invested money, time, passion and hopes to build our life around - it’s not only a job we do, which indeed pays our wages in better times. On top it’s something we care deeply about.

A decade ago Artefact, Birmingham Bike Foundry,
Federici Housing Co-operative, Gung Ho Housing Co-operative, and Loaf Bakery and Cookery School came together to envision the Stirchley Coop Development, a groundbreaking project which aimed (and still aims!) to create 39 affordable flats and premises for three worker co-op businesses. No bosses, no landlords. Just local residents, workers and council house tenants living together and managing the building as equals.

To illustrate what we have to ‘work’ with over the last year, one of our team took the time to have a read through our email exchanges and notes with GSA and we’d like to share parts of this timeline with you.

🗓️ July 2025 – GSA updates SCD about a new delay pushing completion date to mid/end November 2025 - Loaf informs landlord of old premisses about new delay, asking them for new moving out date for Loaf for February 2026 to not miss out on Christmas sales - we have a 6 months notice period.

🗓️ 10 September 2025 – GSA replies to our open questions after new updates about another delay that ‘they are working towards end of January 2026. We will not be able to finalise this for certain just yet though.’

🗓️ 5 January 2026 – Mid February for practical completion.

🗓️ 19 January 2026 – Loaf still expecting to be able to move whole bakery, shop and cookery school into new building and waiting for GSA’s updates. Mid February for practical completion.

🗓️ 28 January 2026 – Loaf knows about new delays now, but without any clarity how long delays will take and works with GSA towards enabling moving the bakery oven into the new premisses. Completion date at this point 22nd February.

🗓️ 17 February 2026 – GSA is now working towards March completion.

🗓️ 18 February 2026 – Loaf’s last trading day in 1421 Pershore Road 💔

🗓️ 19 February 2026 – Loaf received an early access license to move the bakery oven into the new building on 23 February.

🗓️ 23 February 2026 – Loaf is moving everything out of the building - into 2 large storage units and our homes, waiting for new updates from GSA. Our bakery oven moves into Eden House though!

🗓️ 12 March – After a breakdown during negotiations about the sales price GSA sends a letter to Stirchley Co-operative Development and the three worker co-ops informing them that the planned sale of the building to SCD is no longer going ahead. GSA will retain ownership and become the landlord.

We want to share one quote from this email we received from GSA, signed by the CEO of Green Square Accord:

_{‘We are also committed to working with you with a view to agreeing a deal to occupy the ground floor spaces at the development as planned.}  

_{What this means for you} 

• _{We will work directly with you with the aim of agreeing fair, transparent commercial terms.} 

• _{We will share a pathway to occupation covering access, fit‑out windows, compliance and opening, so you have a reliable timetable to plan around.} 

• _{We will set up a working session to review your requirements and agree milestones.} 

_{Thank you for everything you bring to Stirchley. We share the ambition for you to open your doors at Pershore Road.’}

Following this email we had what feels like endless meetings with their negotiator while we had to regularly chase GSA for updates and dates, which didn’t mean anything anyway.

🗓️ 17 March - Introductory meeting with GSA representative on Microsoft Teams.

🗓️ 30 March - In person meeting at GSA offices. We are given a 30 April completion date.

🗓️ 10 April - GSA moves the completion date to 15 May and acknowledges in writing that “occupation of Unit 3 by Loaf is time critical.”

🗓️ 2 May - Completion target moved to 29 May.

🗓️ 11 May - GSA confirms 29 May remains the occupation date. Our solicitor's draft lease has been received by GSA.

🗓️ 18 May - GSA again confirms 29 May.

🗓️ 25 May - GSA says completion is still officially 29 May.

🗓️ 27 May - Just two days before the promised date, completion is pushed back to 22 June.

🗓️ 28 May - Our solicitor confirms GSA has still not responded on the lease.

🗓️ 9 June - Completion date moved again, now to 29 June. We are also told GSA's solicitors have not yet been formally instructed.

🗓️ 11 June - GSA confirms it will use its own lease, rather than the draft already provided by our solicitor. This effectively means the lease process has to move forward using GSA's documentation.

🗓️ 15 June - GSA again reconfirms 29 June as the handover date.

🗓️ 25 June - Our solicitor is still chasing GSA's solicitors for the new lease. GSA also requests a meeting to clarify the lease situation.

🗓️ 29 June - On a Microsoft teams meeting with GSA, the building is described as potentially being ready “next week”. 5 July becomes the new suggested completion date. The need to complete the lease urgently is reiterated.

🗓️ 7 July - Our solicitor confirms she still has not received the lease from GSA's solicitors.

🗓️ 9 July - GSA's solicitors finally provide their draft lease.

🗓️ 10 July - Our solicitor responds with proposed revisions, one day after receiving it.

🗓️ 17 July - No response from GSA's solicitors on lease revisions. Our solicitor continues chasing and stresses how time-sensitive the situation is.

🗓️ 24 July - GSA's external solicitors say they are waiting for instructions from GSA before they can respond.

🗓️ 5 August - Our solicitor is still chasing GSA for a response. The lease remains unresolved.

🗓️ 10 August - no updates.

🗓️ 11 August - first mentioning of setting higher rents for the commercial units during call between SCD and GSA.

🗓️ 14 August - GSA's external solicitors say they are now instructed from GSA and aim to come back to us beginning the week commencing 17th August.

This is still ongoing. And there is still no outcome, no promised reliable timetable, nor agreement - and yes, just last week they mentioned the idea to increase the commercial rents we discussed months ago.

GreenSquare Accord (GSA) is a housing association which is supposed to be working with us to deliver SCD. GSA is a company with serious problems, they have overseen significant delays and cost overruns caused through the under-budgeting of costs and time, and they now have delivered an ultimatum to the local community - either we pay for their failures, or they take our building.

If GSA owns the building, we fear they will hike the rent on the worker co-ops in order to cover their development costs, all whilst we have already lost £100,000 of income due not having our own premisses over the last 5 months, with this number continuing to rise as the situation remains in limbo.

Where Are We Now?
Almost five months after GSA decided to retain the building, we still do not have a completed lease and cannot move into the new premises.
Alone during this period, the promised completion/occupation date has repeatedly moved numerous times:

30 April → 15 May → 29 May → 22 June → 29 June → 5 July → currently no date given (as of 16 August). But apparently it’s imminent…

Throughout this period, GSA has known that our occupation is “time critical”, while we have continued operating from temporary premises at reduced capacity, with staff and supporting businesses making significant sacrifices to keep Loaf going.

Makes sense, we want to be our own landlord, right?!

Thanks for all the continued support & see you soon!

Team Loaf

Neil, Mina, Rach, Pete, Dave, Dorit, Molly, Michael, Kate & Fliss

👉 Support the crowdfunder here

Website: loaf.coop

Updates on: Instagram

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