The Bread Social’s new Gold Coast-based headquarters has been almost four years in the making. Baking Business caught up with the trio behind the business – Sam Saulwick, Tom Scott and Paul Giddings – to find out just what it takes to create a space built by bakers, for bakers.

The Bread Social’s history reads like something out of a book: a trio of friends – Sam Saulwick, Tom Scott and Paul Giddings – met for a couple of beers at a Bondi pub one day and left with the concept for a bakery.

At the time Paul was the head baker at CBD, where Sam was also the general manager, while Tom was working down the road at Bourke St Bakery as head baker.

Plans were put on hold temporarily, however, when Sam decided to relocate his young family back home to NSW’s Northern Rivers so they could embrace a quieter life. A few months later Paul decided to visit, fell in love with the region and also decided to stay.

Plans for a bakery were put in motion once again, but fast forward 18 months and an increasingly frustrating hunt for potential bakery spaces and it seemed like the trio’s bakery idea would never get off the ground.

But a chance introduction to the family who had bought an old farm just outside of Byron Bay changed everything. Paul and Sam met with the owner Tom Lane and heard his ideas for what would become The Farm – a popular tourist destination that combines a working farm with a collection of microbusinesses – and the deal was sealed just a few weeks later.

Early days

Work in The Bread Social kitchen

The doors to The Farm opened in late 2015, and The Bread Social swiftly cemented itself in the area as a go to bakery for high quality bread and pastries made using local and organic produce.

Additional locations at Tweed Heads and within the Harris Farm Markets store on the Isle of Capri have followed in the intervening years, however, the need for a larger headquarters to serve as The Bread Social’s main production facility was becoming increasingly apparent.

This is where the newly opened Currumbin Waters headquarters, which opened its doors in July, comes in.

Sam said this latest space had been four years in the making and marked a turning point in The Bread Social business.

“We’ve built a space by bakers, for bakers, so all the equipment is state-of-the-art. Back in the day, when we first started, we didn’t have a lot of cash. We bought secondhand equipment and scrimped and saved and did what we could. To have kind of been able to create this space was a real dream come true for Tom, Paul, and myself,” he said.

“The main space is the production facility. There’s an internal flour silo that helps us move flour through the bakery in a much more efficient and ergonomic manner, so no more pick-ups of 20kg flour bags and breaking backs.

“We’ve partnered really closely with Bakery Combinations Australia to get together what we think is a really innovative and exciting site. Hopefully we’ve removed the pinch points from a bakery that make it a bit tiresome and a bit uncomfortable.”

Fresh bread on display

With a business ethos that places organic Australian and local produce front and centre when it comes to the product range, Sam said it had also been very important to showcase that within the new bakery. Floor-to-ceiling glass surrounds the production space, serving to both open it up and to also allow customers a view into the inner workings of the bakery.

Sam said this played on the idea that bakeries provide a sensory experience for customers, while also allowing the bakers a chance to interact with them.

“The pastry room was set behind the coffee section. What we wanted was this opportunity for the customer to be able to smell, touch, and feel what it is that we’re doing in the bakery,” Sam said.

“People turn up and they want to smell bread being baked, and watch cakes being finished and topped. Hopefully the open plan kitchen we went with offers that to them.

“It was also really important for us to make sure that, as much as we could, the staff had an interaction with people coming by and the customers. That, we’ve found, has been really fruitful for us at The Farm. Hopefully it helps to spark that interest of a regular customer coming in when they see someone shaping on the other side of the glass, and then continue that conversation.”

Creating the space

Located on a 2500sq m site, the 1200sq m building was essentially a shell when Tom, Paul and Sam took it over and required the trio to work closely with the building’s owner to design and then build the fit-out.

Describing the work as substantial, the internal fit-out included building all the separate rooms from the temperature-controlled pastry room to the mixing rom, freezers and cool rooms.

“We worked really closely with the Gold Coast City Council to make sure we were adhering to any health and safety legislation, but we also wanted to keep the high roof as much as we could throughout the building,” Sam said.

“If you’re baking and mixing in the mixing room at two o’clock in the morning, you still feel like there’s a viewing to the outside world and natural light coming in and you’re not just sort of stuck in fluoro lighting.”

The Bread Social also has a cafe

The new location will also help to serve as a springboard into the Brisbane region for The Bread Social’s wholesale business arm.

Sam said he, Tom and Paul were wary about entering the new region, but the new location would help make the move easier for them, starting with the potential of daily deliveries.

“We’re not looking to saturate the market in any way. We are still tied to the Byron Shire. That’s where we’re from and we’ll always have our roots down there,” Sam said.

“We will be looking to springboard into Brisbane in a wholesale sense, and still doing that with integrity. We hope to find like-minded businesses that want to work with us and treat the product with respect.

“It’s good for us and it’s good for them if they’re getting fresh products daily and are able to use it. Our philosophy has always been to bake fresh every day and to deliver in the morning. We deliver seven-days-a-week and if we need to come out to those smaller cafes and restaurants and whole food shops more regularly we’d prefer to do that than see product getting carried over and used the second day.”

It’s this eye on consistently creating high quality products that has helped cement The Bread Social’s reputation. Sam said it was important for he and the team to continue to maintain The Bread Social’s ethos of working with seasonal and local produce to produce the rustic products they’re known for.

“We’ve also challenged our staff to use the ingredients that we have on hand, depending on the time of year and the area and food bowl we’re buying from,” he said.

“With all love and respect to those who do this – that fine chocolate work and things like that are just not us. We will continue to focus on what we do well – using seasonal local produce, and that rustic look is always going to be our thing.”