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Bread is the staple product

Owners of the Golden Bread Basket, the Effenberg family, continue to show leadership as their business, celebrates its 25 year anniversary since being established in Morwell.

By Latrobe City Council - 31st October 2003 - Back to News

Latrobe City Investment Manager, Leo Billington said that in a challenging and interesting market place, changing due to rationalisation by the larger bread manufacturers, the Golden Bread Basket is fast filling the gap left over.

"As testimony to the size and hard work of this quiet achiever, the company has become a major local employer with 48 employees across its three retail outlets.

"The Golden Bread Basket is operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with a daily output of almost 4000 loaves of bread, 600 dozen bread rolls, various pastries and specialty breads," Mr Billington explained.

"About 1.5 tonnes of yeast and 80 tonnes of flour are used each month and almost 1 tonne of meat is used each week for the company’s well-known meat pies," Mr Billington added.

"Elmar Effenberg first established the business in 1966, in Traralgon, after serving his apprenticeship and working for various independent bakeries that once existed throughout the Latrobe Valley.

"In fact, Elmar is credited with teaching other Gippsland bakers how to make meat pies, and now hopes his grandchildren may be interested in continuing in the family footsteps making a third generation succession quite likely," Mr Billington explained.

Today, the business is managed by Mark and his brother, John who is the production manager. Elmar, now retired, provides timely advice encouraging his sons to push onward to new frontiers.

Mark Effenberg said that the Golden Bread Basket is now the largest independent bakery in Gippsland, supplying products to schools, sporting clubs, fundraising committees, workplace canteens and independent supermarkets.

As Melbourne becomes the production and distribution centre for larger players in the baking industry, Mark and John Effenberg are looking to diversification to strengthen their regional predominance, without getting too far away from the traditions of the baker’s trade.

Mark Effenberg said that the business has created a broad market base.

"We operate retail outlets as well as a wholesale division and have incorporated new technology into our bread-making. Whilst bread dough now only takes three minutes to be mixed, and new ovens and slicers are dedicated for sliced bread manufacture, we still insist on training our apprentices in all the traditional bakery skills from hand moulding to pastry decorating," Mr Effenberg said.

"With our future plans firmly in place, we still believe it is important to educate our next generation of bakers and pastry cooks in the traditional skills because this is where the market growth opportunities exist.

Reflecting on the success of the business and the ever-growing demand for its products, Mark Effenberg said that the family must be doing something right.

"We can deliver more than 300 family meat pies on some days to fundraising committees. At Easter time, the company runs two shifts just to keep up with the growing demand for hot cross buns. We look forward to the challenges that the next 25 years and more bring," Mr Effenberg concluded.

Source: www.gippsland.com

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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