Renowned South Australian baked goods manufacturer Balfours — perhaps best known for its distinctive frog cakes — has been sold to an interstate-based firm, 15 years after it last changed hands.
Key points:
- Balfours was established in the 1850s and is best known for its frog cakes, among other products
- Its owner San Remo has confirmed its sale to Aus Pie Co
- An industry expert said the move was a good sign for Balfours' long-term future
Balfours' parent company San Remo confirmed the sale to Western Australia-based food company Aus Pie Co, which also owns meat pie-maker Mrs Mac's Pies.
Established in Adelaide in the 1850s by Scottish migrants Margaret Calder (whose maiden name was Balfour) and husband James, Balfours bakery has since become a celebrated patisserie brand.
South Australian company San Remo purchased Balfours in 2008 at a time of financial difficulty for the baker's former parent company.
Details of the latest sale have not been publicly released but San Remo, which described itself as "first and foremost a pasta company", said it had made the decision to focus on "growing our significant core business globally".
"Fifteen years ago we took the opportunity to buy Balfours and apply our skills to reinvigorating the iconic bakery business and brand which we have done successfully," San Remo said in a statement.
"We are pleased Australian ownership will be retained with Balfours' purchase by specialist pie-maker, Aus Pie Co."
Aus Pie Co will be taking over Balfours at the start of August, and its CEO Bruce Feodoroff told ABC Radio Adelaide's Sonya Feldhoff the takeover would turn Balfours into an international brand, with possible future sales to Asia and New Zealand.
"Balfours is older than Mrs Mac's but they're both very iconic brands within the Australian pie industry," he said.
"We intend to keep them that way and grow them bigger than they've ever been … [by] expanding the brand and looking for further opportunities, not only within Australia — we sell product and export to New Zealand.
"One of the opportunities we see for the brand is to take that nationally, utilising the distribution points we have.
"We're certainly not letting the brand disappear, and for all the recipes and everything that go with that brand is what we will continue with."
Mr Feodoroff said that "85 to 90 per cent of the manufacturing" would stay in Adelaide, and that "streamlining and making it more efficiently the best we can" was part of the plan.
When asked about the impact on the local workforce, he stopped short of guaranteeing there would be no job cuts, adding that the plan was to continue "business as usual".
"There's no advantage to us in changing what is already being done," he said.
Balfours' website describes the company as "Australia's oldest bakery" that is "proudly" operated in South Australia.
The Baking Association of Australia said the move was a reassuring sign for the long-term future of Balfours, which is based at Dudley Park.
"It's big news, I suppose because Balfours have played a very important part in South Australia for many years," chief executive officer Tony Smith told ABC Radio Adelaide.
"It's big in other states too, it has a major presence in New South Wales too … [and] their cakes and their pies are pretty well known in Victoria."
Mr Smith said Balfours was "in pretty good hands to stay in South Australia".
"Given that it's an iconic brand, I don't think it's going to go anywhere, that's for sure," he said.
Balfours is best known for its pastries including its pasties, footy pies and other patisserie — especially its frog cakes, which consist of sponge cake, jam and cream covered in a layer of coloured fondant icing in the shape of a frog's head.
The History Trust of South Australia's history advocate Kiera Lindsey said the frog cake dated back to the 1920s, and would this year celebrate its centenary.
"In September this year there'll be some celebrations for that," she said.
"I understand there are movements afoot to make a case for a statue in Rundle Mall, which is one of the key sites where Balfours started."
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