We help bakeries, microbreweries, distilleries, coffee roasters and small food producers across the UK switch to cheaper energy. Producers moving off deemed and out of contract rates save an average of £16,600 a year.
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Understanding where the energy goes is the first step to paying less for it. Here is what typical food production usage looks like across the UK.
Figures are estimates from published UK benchmarks priced at 25p/kWh electricity, 7p/kWh gas and about £365 a year in standing charges. They are not quotes. See how we estimate.
Choose your business type
Each page has the typical bill, the equipment that drives it and the questions owners ask us most. Pick the closest match; you can refine it in the quote.
Typical bill £8k–£30k a year
Biggest load: Deck and convection ovens
See high street bakery energyTypical bill £30.6k–£106.9k a year
Biggest load: Rack and tunnel ovens
See wholesale bakery energyTypical bill £3.6k–£17.3k a year
Biggest load: Electric convection or combi ovens
See cake maker or patisserie energyTypical bill £9.4k–£69.4k a year
Biggest load: Copper or kettle and hot liquor tank
See microbrewery or taproom energyTypical bill £8.2k–£48.9k a year
Biggest load: Pot or column still, steam jacket or element
See distillery or cidery energyTypical bill £6.8k–£62.2k a year
Biggest load: Jacketed kettles, cookers and steam boiler
See small food producer energyTypical bill £4.4k–£38.9k a year
Biggest load: Drum roaster burner and drive motor
See coffee roaster energySpecialist energy switching for the UK's independent food and drink producers. Craft and high street bakeries, wholesale bakeries, cake makers and patisseries, microbreweries and taprooms, craft distilleries and cideries, small food manufacturers and co-packers, and coffee roasters. These are production businesses on retail-sized contracts, running ovens, boilers, stills, glycol chillers and cold stores on rates that were often rolled over rather than negotiated. We compare 20+ suppliers free and price your site for the way it actually runs.
Deck and rack ovens up to temperature from 3am, hours before the first sale
Retarder provers and dough retarders holding temperature overnight, every night
Steam boilers, coppers and stills burning gas in long high draw cycles on production days
Walk-in chillers, cold stores and glycol chillers that never switch off, including Sundays
The kit that dominates the bill, with the annual kWh and cost bands we see in published benchmarks. Knowing this helps us match a tariff to your usage pattern.
| Equipment | kWh a year | Cost a year (est.) |
|---|---|---|
| Deck, rack and tunnel ovens (gas) | 30,000–300,000 kWh | £2,100–£21,000 |
| Electric convection, combi and roasting ovens | 8,000–45,000 kWh | £2,000–£11,250 |
| Provers, retarders, dough mixers and depositors | 4,000–20,000 kWh | £1,000–£5,000 |
| Refrigeration, walk-in chillers and cold stores | 10,000–90,000 kWh | £2,500–£22,500 |
| Steam boilers, coppers, stills and jacketed kettles (gas) | 20,000–350,000 kWh | £1,400–£24,500 |
| Glycol chillers, compressed air, extraction and lighting | 8,000–60,000 kWh | £2,000–£15,000 |
Ask your supplier for a half hourly or smart meter data download and look at the 3am to 7am block. Bakeries, roasteries and breweries often carry a large night load that should be priced differently from a nine to five shop.
Get oven door seals, steam tube gaskets and prover door seals checked annually. A worn seal leaks heat continuously and never shows up as a fault, only as a bigger gas bill.
Batch the bake and batch the roast. Full oven and roaster loads with fewer heat up cycles cut fuel use more than any control setting change.
Fit heat recovery on oven flues, still condensers or roaster afterburners and use the recovered heat to preheat hot water, mash liquor or incoming air.
Check your contract end date. Published out of contract rates in August 2026 averaged 38.38p per kWh for electricity and 11.23p for gas across fifteen business suppliers, roughly half as much again as a negotiated fixed rate, which makes an expired contract the single most expensive thing on this list.
Illustrative example
Deck ovens on from 4am with a shop out front
Ovens are most of the gas, proving and refrigeration most of the electricity, and both start before dawn.
Illustrative example, not a real customer. Figures are estimates based on published UK benchmarks. See how we estimate. See all worked examples.
Five common errors that cost café and coffee shop owners hundreds of pounds a year, and the simple fixes.
Read articleHigh street bakeries, microbreweries, distilleries and small food producers pay for heat twice: making it and taking it away. Where the kWh go and what a fair contract looks like.
Read articleBuilt for owner-run businesses in hospitality, food retail, motor trade, farming, personal care, accommodation, food production, leisure, care homes and laundry
Switching your energy supplier is just the start. Our team can help you reduce consumption too — with expert energy audits, LED lighting upgrades, refrigeration optimisation, and solar PV installations.
Get a comprehensive analysis of your energy consumption with actionable recommendations.
Learn moreUpgrade your heating systems with smart controls to reduce waste.
Learn moreOptimise your fridges, freezers and cooling systems for maximum efficiency.
Learn moreGenerate your own electricity and slash daytime energy costs.
Learn morePart of the Smart Energy group — trusted by businesses like Bargoed YMCA and Treforest Football Club for energy efficiency solutions across Wales and the UK.
Get a tariff matched to how a food production actually uses energy: the equipment, the hours and the fuels on your meters.
