Planoles' only bakery seeks successor as owner retires

Planoles, a small village of around 300 inhabitants in northern Catalonia near the Pyrenees, is set to lose its only bakery. 

Owners Leonor Bernat and her husband Sebastià Quixal, have been running the business for 38 years and are planning to close the bakery around Easter due to retirement. 

The couple are looking for someone interested in taking over, to continue supplying baked goods to Planoles and the surrounding towns. 

“We would like it to be someone who comes to live here, becomes part of the community, and starts a family like we did,” Leonor Bernat explains.

Leonor was 22 when she and her husband, Sebastià – the son of a family of bakers – decided to leave Sabadell, north of Barcelona, for a change of scenery and move to Planoles.

At that time, there were about fifty businesses in the village, but no bakeries. They converted a garage into a store and built the business from the ground.

The owners acknowledge the hard work that goes into running a bakery. “We work a lot every day,” Bernat admits. She also emphasizes that the person taking over the bakery needs to be “someone who genuinely enjoys working.”

Still, she points out: “We have done it, and we have been very happy.”

During their years of running the bakery, they have created strong ties with the residents in Panoles and its surrounding villages. 

Since they announced their retirement, many customers have come specifically to say goodbye, and some no longer even live in the town.

Among the regular customers is Xavier, a resident of Navà, located approximately 5 kilometers from Planoles. He hopes a replacement can be found because the bakery “is desperately needed.” 

“It is not just the bakery for Planoles, it is for all the surrounding villages,” he points out. 

If the bakery closes down permanently, Xavier would have to travel 10 kilometers to get to the second closest bakery in Toses.

Although nothing has been finalized since the owners announced the sale, they have had interested people wanting to buy the business.

However, both the bakery owners and the town council fear that the lack of housing in the village could be an obstacle to finding a successor.

“We're hitting a brick wall,” mayor David Verge states. He urges the state to “unblock” 12 stalled apartments in the area. 

Verge adds that  “it would be a shame” if the situation does not get solved because this business is a “great opportunity” to attract a new family that would bring more life to the village.

He explains that efforts have been made to reverse depopulation and in three years they have welcomed 50 new residents. 

“It is an attractive town because we have all the necessary services like a school, a daycare centre, a train station and shops. People want to come live here.”

The mayor applauds the government's commitment to social housing, but asks for more effort for rural areas. 

“This is a very urgent issue, we cannot wait any longer,” Verge says.