For day-trippers Toogood Bakery is the bakery that’s too good to miss. Baking Business spoke to the duo behind the South Australian bakery, Andy Toogood and Ash Schmidt, to find out just what it takes to establish a successful bakery in a tourism hotspot.

In mid-June 2024, Andy Toogood was searching for his next step.

The former award-winning Bakers Delight franchise owner was burned out, and tentative steps into a sales career didn’t fill the gap the baking industry had left in his life.

But after making the move to Adelaide Andy said he began to further explore the region and soon began to make regular daytrips to the nearby beachside town of Moonta.

“Two years ago I couldn’t even point to where Moonta was on a map, but since moving to Adelaide I had been a bit of a regular tourist on the weekend since it was only an hour-and-a-half away,” Andy said.

“I loved the little town. It has no traffic lights, everyone waves at each other and it has beautiful beaches and fishing.”

The town also had another major drawcard: a building Andy had come across was for sale and had all the makings of a great country bakery. So, he bought it.

Andy said he wasn’t sure what to do with the building, which in a previous life had been a pizza shop but for the past 15 years had been home to a bike shop.

This is where his friend – and now business partner – Ashley Schmidt comes in.

Toogood Bakery

A partnership is born

“I met Ash probably 10 years ago. He trained around five of my apprentices at TAFE and we always kept in touch,” Andy said.

“We had similar interests and both have a huge passion for the baking industry. We had looked at opportunities together before, but nothing was ever done.”

Ash is a TAFESA lecturer and has also been heavily involved in a number of baking competitions, from World Skills to LA Judge and Bake Skills. It was while Andy and Ash were both serving as judges at The Australian Sausage Roll competition for the Baking Association of Australia that Andy broached the topic of Ash joining the Toogood Bakery team.

“I knew Ash would be on TAFE holidays around the same time that I could open in December, so I kept pestering him to help,” Andy said.

Ash went one better, instead deciding to take a year’s leave of absence from his teaching role. It was a big decision, but one, he said, was grounded in a desire to try something new.

A shopfitter was brought in to help transform the retail space back into a bakery, complete with a “smelling window” by the oven and bi-fold doors to help create atmosphere, while Andy and Ash decided on the Toogood Bakery product range, settling on an initial line up of classic items – fresh bread, pies, pasties, sausage rolls, vanilla slices, Kitchener buns, and chocolate doughnuts.

By the week before Christmas in 2024, they decided it was time to officially open the doors.

“It was crazy, and quite honestly when we were opening we didn’t know what to expect,” Ash said.

“We sort of knew the basic products that we were going to start making, but we had no idea about the quantity. For the first three days we turned the pie warmer off at midday because we couldn’t keep up – it was empty.

“There’s only the two of us, Andy and myself, as the bakers. We were the production team, and we’d employed local staff for the shop front. They were really good – they did an awesome job with regards to opening up with minimal training and not knowing much about the product range. We all just continually learnt each day.”

Ash at work at Toogood Bakery

Getting down to business

Andy and Ash worked hard, regularly pulling 15-hour work days just to keep up with production, all the while making necessary adjustments so they could make enough product for each day.

Ash said the long hours and night work came as a bit of a culture shock for him after so many years teaching, but that he loved being back in the kitchen.

“[At TAFE] it was Monday to Friday, starting at 7am at the earliest. Then all of a sudden I was starting work at 10pm or midnight and working 15-hour days and working weekends. We were working seven-days-a-week initially,” he said.

“But both of us love the practical aspect of baking – the hands on aspect – so that’s the part we’ve really enjoyed; being creative, implementing our own product range, our own recipes, being able to adapt and asking the customers what they want.”

Despite the long hours and large workload, Ash said from the first time they opened the doors to Toogood Bakery they were aware they were operating in a somewhat false economy and, once the peak holiday season finished, business began to quieten down.

However, another new opportunity beckoned. Once the tourists had returned home the Moonta locals began to re-emerge and Toogood Bakery had the chance to really engage with its surrounding community. It’s an aspect of the business Ash said he and Andy are passionate about.

“[We love] being involved with the local community. It’s such a small, regional town,” Ash said.

“The local AFL Club approached us to supply them for their home games during the upcoming winter season, while the netball club asked us to come on as sponsors. Other Moonta businesses have asked if they can buy products wholesale from the bakery.

“It’s pretty cool to be able to embed yourself with the locals.”

The comparatively quieter period has also allowed Andy and Ash to establish a more sustainable work schedule. These days Toogood Bakery is open five-days-a-week, including weekends so they can feed Adelaide daytrippers, while closing for two during the week so the team can rest and refresh.

“It’s still very busy, because Moonta is very much a tourist destination for people travelling, but the locals come back into the fold on your school term days,” Ash said.

“It’s been good interacting with them.”