A fourth-generation family business at Dubbo has secured a contract to supply bread to a major supermarket, opening up growth opportunities.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Two Early Rise Baking Co brands went on the shelves of Woolworths stores at Dubbo and Wellington in November.
Consumers are getting behind the local product, with the bakery and the supermarket reporting sales had grown about fourfold since starting out.
"We were bringing in maybe 100 loaves a day, and [now] some days we're bringing in three to four hundred a day," Early Rise Baking Co sales and distribution manager Beau Stevenson said.
ALSO MAKING NEWS:
The new avenue for the long-established Dubbo business came about under Woolworths' local sourcing program.
Mr Stevenson said supplying bread to the major supermarket is opening up opportunities to grow their 180-member team.
"It's increased our production so we'll be looking at employing more staff," he said.
Early Rise, which has its origins in a small bakery that opened at Tooraweenah a century ago, already supplies bread to supermarkets and other retailers within a 600-kilometre radius of Dubbo daily, Mr Stevenson reports.
"I really want to thank Woolworths along with all of our other customers for giving shoppers the opportunity to shop local when they do their weekly grocery shop," he said
"And for supporting local businesses, it's really tough with the drought so really appreciate everything they're doing with their local sourcing program."
The two brands, Today's and Boundary Road, are baked with the key ingredient sourced from Dubbo-based Ben Furney Flour Mills.
Woolworths Orana Mall store manager Adam Morrissey praised the Early Rise products, and said sales had "taken off really well".
The bread's introduction to the supermarket's shelves follows a trail blazed by another Dubbo family business.
"We had the luxury of having Little Big Dairy come in a couple of years ago and knowing they're local and have done well, the fact of jumping on an extra local brand was going to work and it has," Mr Morrissey said.
The store manager reports feedback from customers was they liked shopping locally for the product baked at nearby Mountbatten Drive.
"For sure, especially during the hard times, we're in the middle of a drought, and people are struggling financially and it's a good offer, it's no dearer than any product around so knowing they're helping local I think, in the trying conditions, is a benefit as well," he said.