Laxey Glen Mill has doubled its production to keep flour and bread on the shelves of the island’s shops and supermarkets.

For the Mill’s new strategic development manager , Matthew Baptist, who arrived in the island at the start of lockdown, it has meant ’the greatest learning curve’.

Matt and his wife, Katryna, had just finished taking a year out, travelling around Europe with their three children, twins Brooke and Delta, seven, and Evie, 18 months, and were returning to find ’a job and some sort of normality’.

Katryna is Manx and Matt has been ’a long time visitor and a long time fan’.

He says: ’It had always been our intention to raise our kids here in the environment she was brought up in.

’But as soon as I read the advert for the job at the Mill I thought: "That’s got me written all over it. I think I can help here".’

What no one could have anticipated was the upheaval of the Covid crisis: the rush from customers to stock up on the basic necessities like flour leaving many supermarket shelves stripped bare.

Matt says: ’It was a unique start to a job.

’I landed on the island just before lockdown and I started work whilst in quarantine, using Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

’It was straight into the challenge that Covid has presented.

’Managing our way through something like this is not something anyone has experienced before.’

Although the initial rush to the shops has waned many people have also fallen in love with baking bread at home so the demand for flour has remained high.

Matt says: ’The amount of our retail product going out has increased by five to six times and there has also been a large increase in bulk product to the larger commercial operations like Ramsey Bakery, Noa and Ross Bakery as well.

’We have increased production significantly and we are averaging out at at least double our usual output.’

In order to do this, the production team at the Mill has been separated into two halves, adopting a split shift system, keeping the Mill running for a total of 66 hours across a six-day week.

An extra delivery driver was also hired to keep supplies getting to shops and bakeries.

Matt says: ’We knew we needed to protect the Mill from infection. It’s all been about keeping this operation going as long as we can with as little risk. There has been no time to slow down. What a team effort it’s been.’

The silos at the Mill are still well stocked with wheat from the 2019 harvest and farm quotas for wheat growing for this year have also been increased.

But food security is so important for a small island that the Mill has made contingency arrangements should their stock start to run low.

Matt explains: ’We have found a single source of the same grain as we grow on the island from one grower. We’ve got our name on some tonnage.

’We don’t know yet if we’ll need it but, if we do, we can get our hands on it.’

The other vital element the Mill needed to increase production in the retail sector was packaging. Matt says the empty shelves in the UK supermarkets were caused not by a shortage of flour, or wheat, but a lack of packaging.

He says: ’We acted early and forward ordered to stay ahead of the curve. Whilst many mills in the UK have run out of 1.5kg bags Laxey Glen Mills have even, thanks to a team effort, including Bridson & Horrox and Mannin Media, been applying labels by hand to unbranded bags to maintain continuity of supply to the island.’

Seeing news reports of shoppers being unable to get hold of flour in supermarkets in the UK, and some even paying up to £6 for a bag of flour on eBay, Matt admits that ’it was a temptation’ to start exporting their products.

But he maintains that supporting the island has been more important.

He says: ’Our primary purpose is to supply the Isle of Man: this is an island product and it’s for the island.’

When the Covid crisis is all over and things return to normal Matt hopes that the demand for Laxey’s unique product will be maintained.

He says: ’I realise many people will have been hit in the pocket by this scenario but we would ask them to continue to support us.

’We are partnered with Unesco and our small team of dedicated people are producing a product that is far superior to cheaper, generic supermarket brands.

’We would very much like the island to continue to support us.’