THE poor quality of bread sold at Woermann Brock stores in Swakopmund has shocked consumers, especially Namibians of German origin and German tourists who eat it as part of their staple food.

For the past couple of weeks, consumers in the coastal town were exposed to holed loaves of bread which crumbled easily or to small sizes of bread and bretchins.
Several consumers complained to Informanté that the loaves of bread bought from Woerman Brock stores were literary falling apart.
An irate customer, who said she had bought poor quality bread from Woerman Brock stores, accused Woerman Brock of taking customers for a ride by not caring about the shoddy quality of bread they were selling.
Another woman had to return a couple of loaves that had holes and could not be used for making sandwiches.
“It is so frustrating to buy a loaf of bread that looks like this, because you can do nothing with it,” said the outraged mother, pointing to both defected loaves.
Another Woermann Brock branch, Vineta, ran out of bretchins and fresh bread during one of the peak tourist periods after the oven had broken down.
When the bretchins were later delivered, they were alarmingly reduced in size and in limited quantities.
“Bread is the staple diet of most people, and you would think that a major store such as Woermann Brock would see to it that their bread lines were in place and that they can supply their customers with a decent loaf of fresh bread each day – surely that is not asking too much,” said one irate shopper.
After the ‘bugger up’ Woermann Brock reduced their bread prices to N$5,20 for a brown bread and N$5,50 for a white bread.
When Informanté contacted Woermann Brock’s head office for comment, Tielman van Lill, Operations Manager admitted that the Vineta oven had broken down and that they only had one bakery supplying all three stores in Swakopmund which had put a huge strain on production.
“We are working 24 hours in our big store trying to save the day, but I must admit that over the long week-end we were caught off guard with so many visitors in town and couldn’t keep up. He was referring to the private schools’ sport extravaganza held at the coast where about 8,000 people descended on the town.
“Currently, we are churning out more than 3,000 loaves of bread a day, and over 5,000 bretchins, which we have to deliver to each store on time.”
He said that the holes were caused by handlers’ failure to roll the dough properly. 
“Because people are working under extreme pressure mistakes can happen, but the bottom line is that we are trying our utmost best to satisfy each customer, and there is only so much you can do in 24-hours time.”
He said Woermann Brock was one of the few large departmental stores to reduce bread prices by 15%, but said prices will go up again.
Van Lill also said they are busy repairing the Vineta oven, and hopefully everything should be back to normal by the end of the week adding that there were plans to also build a ‘mega bakery’ in town to  meet demand.