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LEADING EDGE
My first contact with this amazing and vibrant country was in 1999 when I took over the Datapax Bakery Software agency for Australia and had to go to Manila for training. The Philippines is the only English speaking country in Asia, with culture renown for its hospitality, beautiful beaches, mountains and warm and friendly people. Almost 90% of the population is Christian with a small Muslim population mainly in the island of Mindanao way down at the southern most islands of the Philippines. So after the culture shock of working in Manila two years later I found myself flying in to Cebu City the second largest city in the country. Cebu is also the holiday island of the Philippines with beautiful beaches and diving resorts. It has also been free from any kind of terrorism and the people are incredibly friendly. Also the value for your dollar is fantastic. As an example a stubbie of beer only costs 50 cents from a corner store! Filipinos love their food and are big on snacking with bake shops on nearly every corner. After rice the staple food of the poorer people is Pan de Sal a small dinner roll made from plain dough but much sweeter than our bread. In fact a lot of sugar is used in the bread doughs ala US style. Some of the popular Filipino bakery lines include Ensimada (sweet dough with cheese or purple ube root filling), Otap (a sweet puff pastry), Torta (a sweet plain cake), Mamon (a very soft sponge cake), Leche Flan (made from cooking condensed milk and eggs) and Buko Pie (a sweet pastry pie with a coconut/coconut milk filling). They are all delicious and would appeal to many Aussies looking for a new taste. I learnt how to make all these products while working there. In addition to their traditional favourites Filipinos also love western bakery lines with US chains like Red Ribbon Bake-shops and Dunkin Delicious Donuts much in evidence. Filipino chains like Goldilocks and The French Baker match the best in the world – imagine a very large Bakers Delight with a restaurant added.
This involved the right business plan and target market to achieve this then designing a new look shop which incorporated a coffee house, full view (and aroma) mini bakery and self-serve section. The existing product range needed reducing and product consistency improved. New products were needed including a comprehensive range of European breads and pastries. Most of the new breads were made with sponge and ferments for flavour and quality. Popular lines like Muffins, Croissants, and Danish Pastries, Cookies n Cream Cakes, Cinnamon Rolls, Egg & Bacon Rolls and Cheese Rolls were added. All the products had to be developed to suit the ingredients available and the tropical conditions. Then I had to train the Filipino bakers to produce these new products. This was a real challenge as many were poor on their command of English (not just because they were bakers and not pastrycooks!) anyway I learned some of the local lingo and with lots of smiles and hand signs this was eventually achieved. The new look Angelica Bakeshop opened and sales soared with a second shop opening just before last Christmas with more to follow. So this project together with putting HACCP Certification into an export Frozen Pastry Bakery in Manila and teaching Bakery Classes in Cebu meant my three months turned into eighteen! I could have stayed longer but whilst I love the people and the way of life I had run out of vegemite and was missing home and it is good being back in the best country in the world! The author Mike Rossiter is the Principal of MRA Pty Ltd which provides consultancy and software solutions for the Baking and allied industries. He can be contacted at mra2000@bigpond.net.au This is where the World’s northernmost bakery is situated!
The darkness outside is no surprise. It has been dark for almost 3½ months and it will last at least another couple of weeks until the sun peeps out over the skyline for a short moment - and for the first time this year. Fortunately outdoor moving is no big problem during the dark time, even if the temperature is often going down to minus 40 0C. The sky is almost always unclouded at this time of the year, and myriads of clear stars help the moon to throw light on the snow and ice covering everything. Only the colours have disappeared. In the summer, in return, the sun is having its revenge by staying in the sky for 4 months unceasingly day and night.Adam Olsen is the head of the world’s northernmost bakery here in Qaanaaq, the northernmost town of Greenland, far north of the Polar Circle between 70 and 80 degrees north. The proud people
Nowadays you come to Qaanaaq by helicopter from Søndre Strømfjord. There are two weekly flights. The town has grown since is was founded in 1953 when the American airbase in Thule from the Second World War should be extended as a result of the Cold War. In connection with the building of the town, the Danish authorities decided for security reasons to move the local population from their settlement in Uummannaq close to the base to the northern side of the Inglefield fiord - 100 km up along the coast. Today there are 650 inhabitants in Qaanaaq, and this figure is slightly increasing. Qaanaaq is the administrative centre of the area, which also counts 4 small settlements where the national supermarket chain Pilersuisoq A/S is conducting a bakery and also taking care of the trade with convenience goods, post, bank, and a lot of other things. Room for everything
Besides master baker Adam Olsen, the staff of the bakery consists of an assistant and an efficient young apprentice, who has soon served his apprenticeship. Every day they are busy baking all kinds of white bread, pasco bread and rye bread as well as various sandwich types for the fast food department of the store. Also Danish pastry, various kinds of breakfast rolls and sponge cakes are produced every day as well as fine fancy cakes for the gourmets. Hereto come products that are only made when ordered. This is primarily layer cakes and gingerbread men for special occasions, also puff pastry products can be ordered. In fact only the stock of ingredients and the fantasy put a limit to what Adam Olsen and his people can make. Do we need to mention that the bakery in Qaanaaq is only able to manage the extensive production thanks to a perfect teamwork between competent collaborators and highly modern production facilities, among other things 2 BEAR Varimixer machines of 30 and 40 L, respectively. Flying supply service The only bakery store in this area is in Qaanaaq. The smaller towns in the district - Savissivik, Siorapaluk, Moriusaq, and Qegertat - have to order their bread, which will then be brought by helicopter. Besides snow scooter and dog sledge this is the only possible way of transport most of the year. The transport situation is also making heavy demands on the master baker’s ability of making long-term dispositions. Raw materials are only delivered to the bakery in Qaanaaq once a year, viz. when the ice allows sailing along the coast of Northwest Greenland in August. Worth visiting
Here you can admire the imposing view over the Inglefield fiord with its enormous icebergs, and it might even be possible to see the sealers hunting seals as well as hunting for walruses and polar bears. This in spite of the fact that today Qaanaaq is a modern society with hotel, shops, own airport - and also a well-run bakery with an assortment that can make the mouth water - even of the most fastidious people. A/S Wodschow & Co. has a large range of mixers covering any need, in a long lasting quality - also in remote parts of the world. BEAR Varimixer is available in the sizes 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 60, 80, 100, 140, and 200 L and has an ergonomic series of mixers in the sizes 60, 80, and 100 L, called ERGO BEAR. A/S Wodschow & Co. has a wide range of accessories. Further to standard tools, such as dough hooks, beaters, and whips, special mixing tools are available. A selection of meat mincers and vegetable cutters which easily deal with mincing, shredding and cutting tasks. The accessories are made of solid materials, designed for hard wear, year in and year out. Easy to use and to clean. Karl’s Good Stuff Bakery!
His skills were those of a master bread maker raised and trained from an early age in a small village near Linz in Central Austria where tasty, homemade breads had been a tradition for centuries. Karl worked and saved hard, along with his determination he began to make his mark. He married an equivalently talented woman and together they established bakeries throughout the city of Melbourne, raised a family and after 28 years in the Victorian Baking Industry they then decided to move north to Queensland to open a new bakery business in the fastest growing region in the country. This was in 1988, and in the following years Karl’s new venture, "The Good Stuff Bakery", was born. This business was to be a family concern with Karl, his wife Irmgard, daughter Dianna and son-in-law Jim Kaliviotis. The business was established at the City Link Industrial Estate in Carrara on the Gold Coast. The bakery was built on a site bought by Karl. The bakery was very humble in the beginning (2,000 square metres) with all of the family hands on in the areas of baking, marketing, distribution and clerical aspects of the business.
This is their 15th year and since their quiet entry into the market place, the "Good Stuff" name is recognized as a distinctive brand and the bakery makes a strong business presence throughout Northern New South Wales and South East Queensland. Still located at City Links estate, it is now a major employer by regional standards with 75 staff and 31 contracted vendors who distribute fresh products 7 days a week. "The Good Stuff Bakery" now produces approximately 500,000 units from 300 tonnes of flour every week. A past winner of the "Gold Coast Business Excellence Award" and "The Queensland Ethnic Family Business Award" shows that the quality of "Good Stuff Bread" is to the very highest standards. The fresh goodies range from standard sandwich loaves to sour dough rye, fancy assorted loaves, ciabatta bread, foccacia, hamburgers, hot dogs, croissants and our newest popular Turkish bread lines.
Since building their original bakery they have added two further developments to cater for the increases in production requirements. The first was a roll plant dedicated to specialty products. This was built in 1997 and is 800 square metres. Their Turkish bread plant was built in 2002 and is 400 square metres in size. The Turkish plant produces 40,000 units per week with a capacity of 1200 units per hour. Along with our storerooms, loading bays, workshop and factories we now have approximately 4000 square metres of land being utilized for our business. Their new project for 2003 is to build a new factory with everything housed under one roof. This is being built on a 26,800 square metre site in the estate that they acquired in July 2002. The new factory will be approximately 7,000 square metres, office area will be 300 square metres and there will be 200 car spaces as well. This will allow "The Good Stuff Bakery" to grow and develop even further than it already has. Their current capacity to produce sliced bread is 5,000 units per hour using 2 automatic bread plants. The new factory will be able to produce 10,000 units per hour. They will be installing one new tunnel oven that is currently being built in Europe. This oven is 84 metres long and will be transported to Australia by ship in three sections. They will also be using liquid yeast in their new factory, they will have three silos to store their flour requirements. This project is due for completion towards the end of this year.
Kelly's Bakery
Korumburra is situated in the heart of South Gippsland and is nestled amongst the rich fertile rolling hills with an annual rainfall of 47 inches. It is noted to be land flowing with milk and honey. Korumburra’s colourful history as a Coal Town is recreated at the Coal Creek Historical Village, located on the site of the original Coal Creek Mine and was the 1st profitable coal mine in Victoria. Black Coal was discovered in Korumburra in 1872 and the industry reached it’s peak during the mid 1890’s with the completion of the rail line from Melbourne. At one stage 2,000 miners were extracting coal from the area. Kelly’s Bakery of Korumburra is 130 km S/E of Melbourne and has a population of 3,500 with approximately 450,000 tourists passing through each year to Wilson’s Promontory. The Kelly family, Gilbert and Lyn and their Son Jason purchased the existing Bakery in January 1994 and at that time had a total staff of 12, opening five and a half days a week. Turnover of approximately $550,000 per annum. After 2 1/2 years they decided to expand the Bakery into a Bakery / Cafe and after months of planning and organising, their dream finally came true and they moved into newly renovated premises and opened for business in November 1996. Opening 7 days a week and having seating for 46, the Kelly family included a Saladbar, Cappuccino machine and a Riva Ice cream machine complimented by very attractive showcases. The Kelly Bakery staff has increased to 28 with 12 fulltime and the rest part time and casuals. Turnover has increased to just under $1,000,000. They put their success down to a very attractive shop front, Fresh quality made products and a large variety of cakes with customer service being of extreme importance. The Kelly’s Bakery has been very successful in the great Aussie Meat Pie Competition. From 6 attempts, they have received 3 Bronze and 2 Silver Medals, only missing out in their first year. The Kelly's are always looking for new things to introduce to their Bakery and have purchased an Edible Image Machine that can copy your photos or pictures onto edible paper for your Birthday or Anniversary cakes. Kelly’s Bakery is located at 63 Commercial Street, Korumburra.
Personnel Policy Handbook The Baking Industry Personnel Policy Handbook has been developed by the Baking Industry Association of Victoria and is an invaluable reference for employers in the baking industry in Victoria. Primarily the handbook has been designed to assist employers in the baking industry to develop policies and procedures which are part of the framework within which a business operates. Having good policies and procedures can result in improved job satisfaction and greater efficiency in the workplace. Importantly the handbook provides guidelines that should allow the employer to deal with routine matters. It should be stressed that the personnel policies and procedures are functional reference guides and contain reasonable flexibility for the employer to consider day to day circumstances which may be present. The sections contained within the handbook are: Introduction, Employer Policy Statements, Health and Safety, Getting Started, Classification of Employment, Review Processes, Counselling, Termination and Personnel Records. There are resources provided i.e. templates that an employer can refer to. It is not intended that this handbook should set out any of the obligations placed on the employer or the employee by the current laws. The Personnel Policy Handbook can be obtained from the BIAV for $33.00 including GST. Call Rita Cooper on (03) 9596 8566 for an order form. Boost Your Pie Sales - 400% + The Great Aussie Pie Competition has increased previous winner’s sales turnovers more dramatically than any other bakery event in Australia. Little Jack Horner Bakery in Argenton, NSW, said their retail pie sales increased dramatically by 400% which prompted the owner of Little Jack Horner to say "You have to enter this competition." Victorian bakers are expected to turn out in droves to win the state’s major pie award which attracts large media coverage. The Great Aussie Pie Competition held in Queensland received over 1.5 million dollars of television and radio coverage. This is a competition that can increase your turnover dramatically. A prior winner of the Great Aussie Pie Competition from NSW said he is determined to take this award out of the state.
Our Pie - Our Heritage Whilst the sausage became the people’s food in
Germany Australians treat the pie as their very own food, it is part of our heritage. The history of our pie can be traced back to Cornwall, Nottinghamshire and Scotland where mutton pies were common fare because of the low cost of mutton. This factor was no doubt also responsible for mutton pies being produced in Australia during early colonial days, when mutton was cheaper even than vegetables. The consumption of meat pies in Australia remains the highest in the world, estimated to be over 200 million per annum or over 13 per head of population.
The Worlds Biggest Pie
The monster pie stretched 32 foot in length and took 16 hours to bake. A crowd of over 3000 pie lovers gathered at the Clevedon Town Football Club Stadium with knives and forks in hand patiently waiting to devour the freshly baked monster pie. Unfortunately, the process of completing the pie dragged on and on until the crowd grew tired of waiting and withdrew from the stadium. Leaving only the bakers and the owner of the stadium to view the finished product. A suction device used to empty cesspits had to be brought in from the local council to get rid of it. |
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Many bakers aim to make their products look as big as they can because of the perceived value. Customers will often choose the biggest bun from the shelf if they are all the same price. Many customers clearly want to get more bun for their buck. But not everyone follows the ‘big is better’ principle. Many customers will actually prefer to purchase smaller products. Some customers may not want to eat quite as much or may consider that a small product is not as fattening as a big one. Customers may also like to purchase a range of smaller products to allow them some variety. In this sense small products give the customer more flexibility. Consider small products as an extra option that may enable you to increase the value of your sales. It is better, for example, to sell six mini muffins for $8.40 rather than three big muffins for $6.00. You can apply the ‘small is beautiful’ to a range of products including Danish pastries, croissants, muffins and slices. You do not need to change all your products to ‘mini or micro’ treats. Experiment and use this option to expand your product range. You may even wish to market your small products with more flavour or being of a higher quality. Some customers will not buy big croissants because they believe the baker was more interested in size than quality. These people will pay more for a small high quality croissant than a larger low quality one. Remember, whatever your strategy, the aim is to increase the value of your total sales to each customer. Article written by Dr. Ken Quail from BRI Australia. Kindly reproduced from BRI Briefs.
Regency Bakery Certificates Due to industry demand, Regency Institute of TAFE Baking Faculty has taken the initiative to implementing both full time and part time Certificate in Baking Courses. Course demand has been high with no existing vacancies in the part time class. The demand for a credentialed work force has become more evident over recent years. Regency is offering Bakers/Chefs who have been working in the industry for a number of years without formal qualifications the opportunity to obtain the recognition they deserve. It is not only people within the industry who have taken this opportunity to study Baking but also people who would wish to use the course as a stepping stone into a constantly expanding industry. We urge you to take the opportunity to increase your earning potential as well as broadening your job opportunities within the industry. Currently we are updating our database in readiness for information about the course to be sent out later this year. If you would like to register your interest in the course now or have any queries, then please contact Regency Institute of TAFE so that we can assist you. Over the past decade a number of bakers have enrolled in, successfully completed and been awarded the Certificate IV in Food Technology. This course provides bakers with the expertise to assume non-traditional roles and responsibilities that are, nonetheless, an integral part of bakery operations. The Certificate IV in Food Technology gives bakers the knowledge and skills to assist with tasks such as developing HACCP based food safety plans, conducting risk assessments of products, determining product shelf-life and developing marketing strategies. Students are also exposed to many other areas of the food processing industry including the meat, fruit and vegetable and beverage sectors. For more information phone (08) 8348 4331 or fax (08) 8348 4294. |
Back
in early 2001, Brisbane based Bakery Consultant Mike Rossiter undertook a
major project in the Philippines ‘The Land of Smiles’ so called because of
the friendliness and big smiles of the people there. Mike tells us how a
three month project turned into eighteen and about baking in the
Philippines.
I
People
have been living here since the first settlers arrived 5,000 years ago after
having crossed Smith Sund from Canada. The Scotch explorer, John Roos with
the Discovery Expedition in 1818 was the first European who managed to come
all the way up here, where he met what he called the Polar Eskimos. They
call themselves Inoghuit, which means "the proud people."
The
bakery in Qaanaaq does not take up much room in the beautiful landscape. The
100 m
In
spite of the difficult transport the tourism in the Qaanaaq area is very
promising these years. More and more people have a dream to visit this
incredibly beautiful nature in the extreme North, where it is possible to go
by dog sledge on the ice cap or just take a walk among the beautiful arctic
flowers in the midnight sun, where the air is just as pure and unspoilt as
when the Danish polar explorers Knud Rasmussen and Peter Freuchen
established the first trade station in the district in 1910.
Karl’s
Good Stuff Bakery has evolved as a result of a dream that Karl Raberger, the
patriarch of the family that runs the highly successful Karl’s Good Stuff
Bakery at Carrara had in the mid 80’s. Karl came to Australia from Austria
in 1955 with rare skills, an open mind, the capacity to work hard and the
desire to make his mark in his new country.
All
of their products are crafted from the best ingredients available from their
approved suppliers where only the best top quality ingredients will be
selected. Their bread is delivered in bread crates manufactured by a Company
called Tooltech. They have found these bread crates to be sturdy and durable
keeping their original form, colour and texture over a period of many years.
Australia
has the biggest consumption of pies but the Poms have the record for the
biggest pie made in the world. In April 1998 catering students from
Stratford-Upon-Avon College produced a steak and kidney pie consisting of 10
tons of meat.