Aussie bakers hanging up the aprons

Aussie bakers owners of Thai bakery Lady Pie are calling it a day on their bakery in Phuket. Baking in Phuket, which started off as a hobby for Susan and Harry Usher, turned into a successful pie business.

The couple sailed to Phuket in 2000 where Harry was offered a job, which he said, “seemed like a good idea to top up the yacht kitty.”

In 2003, Susan, a pie lover from Cooma, started making waffle-type pies two at a time to eat at home. When word of the pies got out at the local yacht club, yachties, mainly Aussies, started queuing up for them.

This demand led to a pizza oven and the making of more conventional pies in tinfoil bases with two local staff.

In 2004, tragedy struck when the house, oven and freezers, which were full of pies, were washed into the Andaman Sea.

Before long Susan was back on her feet and had set up a Thai-registered baking company in a shop house, which for a while was home to an office, bakery and café. Before long she acquired three more premises, converting two into a small baking factory.

Initially Susan’s clientele were the many expats living and working in Phuket.

“The pie warmer was always full,” she said.

“It was like an Aussie Pie Shop in Thailand!”

Now, Susan has a staff of nine including husband Harry, and has become mostly a wholesale supplier to three national and two regional supermarket chains, as well as hotels, bars, restaurants, and distributors throughout Thailand. The company also supplied pies for the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens for three years running.

Now Susan and Harry are ready to retire and are searching for someone to take over Lady Pie, while they take to the tropical lifestyle in Phuket.