Traditionally, the bread making industry in Australia was based around small family businesses. Bakeries were numerous and widespread, each serving its local community. Around 1950, however, the industry began to change.
The impetus for change at that time came largely from the flour mill companies. Post-war development of flour milling industries in a number of Australia's neighbouring countries meant a steady decline in demand for Australian export flour when these countries switched to purchasing wheat. The result was over-capacity in the Australian flour milling industry, and strong pressures emerged for the mills to take steps to secure their flour sales on the domestic market. The surest way to do this was to buy control. The period from 1956 to 1960 saw the emergence of four major bakery companies, each allied to a flour mill company or group, which supplied the majority of bread in Australia's big cities. These companies were built by buying up smaller bakeries.
Important developments in the production and marketing of bread occurred at the same time and helped to make the consolidation process possible.
Mechanised methods of bread making were adopted which enabled the development of large fully automatic plant bakeries capable of producing thousands of loaves per hour at a low cost per unit.
Supermarket retailing became more developed, providing mass distribution of bread at relatively few outlets. This replaced house to house delivery. At the same time brand promotion of bread commenced using the new TV medium. Progress was also made in processing methods and packaging which allowed bread to stay fresh for several days.
The novelty of sliced and wrapped bread carried the restructured industry for some time and it was not until the early 1970's that the next major development began – the rise of the hot bread shop. In a sense, the emergence of these bakeries was reversion to the small business format of the past. The hot bread shops prospered by providing services which the big plant bakeries could not. These included a constant supply of oven-fresh bread, which was particularly important at weekends, and a greater variety of products, particularly rolls and sweet goods.
An important factor behind the success of hot bread shops has been the development of premix flours. These helped owners to overcome the problems of correct formulation in a busy and labour intensive situation. More recently supermarkets have moved to counter this threat to their trade through the installation of in-store bakeries.
During the 1980’s and 1990’s Australia witnessed the introduction of the franchise organisation bakeries and to date they command a 10% market share of the bread industry. Since their inception, the franchise bakery growth has seen them spread to all capital cities of Australia and to most the large regional centres. They offer the consumer a wide range of traditional bread, gourmet breads, regional breads from around the world, dietary breads and nutritious and healthy eating style breads.
During the 1990’s the "Bake off" system also became more popular - this concept is where the outlet does not prepare any of the products but purchases them in a frozen or partially baked frozen form and then bakes them on site to their specific requirements. This concept has seen a remarkable growth in the service station area and in some major fast food outlets.
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