A baking dynasty

A family business, Falcone Bakery, has been able to adjust to the times to keep a long tradition of success alive.

See the video of Falcone Bakery chief executive Andrew Falcone.

The Falcone family has been baking bread for seven generations. Present CEO Andrew Falcone was actually born in a bakery in Italy, and today continues the long family tradition in Australia.

Falcone’s father Paulo set up shop initially in Wollongong, NSW. The reason for the location had a lot to do with the BHP workforce that populated the area, with the resulting demand for more Italian-style breads than was otherwise available at the time.

But a reducing workforce in the steel industry also saw a change in the bread market, so Falcone Bakery moved more towards supplying the increasingly popular sliced white bread. It was a case of, as Falcone puts it, “the smallest percentage of the greatest market being bigger than the greatest percentage of the smallest market”.

The marketing thrust for the company was built upon an already established theory that working families need affordable basics. With the next generation already entrenched in the business, the family tradition looks set to continue.

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