Measures Butchers in Brampton has decided to sell their pies unbaked in an effort to cope with their astronomical electricity bill.

Owner Christine Baughen said the store faced an "awful dilemma" when their electricity bill rose from £898 per month to £4,220 and realised the store would need to adapt so as not to run at a loss.

The award-winning butchers floated the idea for its customers to buy their pies unbaked to minimise the energy used by the ovens on Facebook, which received an incredible outpour of positive feedback.

Christine said: "I was amazed by the amount of support.

"I thought we might get a couple of hundred responses, but it just went wild, and in the end, we received nearly 900 responses on Facebook and well over 100 emails to say what a good idea it was.

"I have no idea why we didn't think of it before!"

The Hunts Post: Measures Butchers has been selling pies and meats from its Brampton store for nearly 39 years.Measures Butchers has been selling pies and meats from its Brampton store for nearly 39 years. (Image: Measures Butchers)

Following the go-ahead from the customers, the store will move forward with the plan to sell unbaked pies, which will help "keep the business sustainable from both an economic and eco-friendly point of view".

Before the change is installed, the shop would run two 11kw ovens for at least 9 hours a day to bake thousands of pies, which are then transferred to a blast chiller to cool them to go into the refrigerated counter.

The customer then purchases the pies to reheat at home, which Christine says would take the same amount of time (around 35 minutes) for Measures to bake them in the first place.

Therefore, rather than "simply waste energy" and be forced into raising the prices of their pies, the store came up with the far more sustainable solution.

"It's a good thing, and the pies do taste better the first time they're baked," said Christine.

"Cutting out those two processes actually improves the product; it's even fresher."

Measures Butchers will begin selling unbaked pies at the end of the week once they have received fully recyclable and compostable packaging and can attribute an accurate shelf life to the pies once they have finished being tested.

Christine added: "I can't wait now to turn those ovens off; mind you, they keep all the staff in the shop warm!"