WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2014 THE DOMINION POST dompost.co.nz B3 Arobake’s 25th birthday ADVERTISING FEATURE Family business built on quality I T’S been 25 years of making dough in Aro Valley for Max Fuhrer and his team at Arobake, and like a good dough, the business just keeps growing. There are a couple of reasons for this. One is that it has always been a supportive family affair. In fact, it was Max’s brother Ernst who was running the Aro Street Butchery at the time who suggested Max have a look at the original building at 96 Aro St, which had been the Aroma health food shop. Fuhrer’s dad (also called Max) bankrolled the buying of the original shop for $30,000 and when they expanded to 94 Aro St, Max senior also built a lot of the shop fittings, some of which are still in use. There was no magic formula for the success of the business apart from a huge focus on quality and plenty of hard work, Fuhrer says. Of course making things people like is the other key ingredient. Belgian biscuits are big favourites and neenish tarts are always popular. Arobake introduced European cakes and breads that Fuhrer learned to make during his years of training in Switzerland. In 2001, they crossed the road to 83 and have been there since. In fact, Fuhrer now lives behind the bakery, making it a rather cosy operation. In its 25 years Arobake has gone from just three people to now being a 30-person operation running morning and evening shifts and supplying fresh cakes and breads throughout Wellington, with Christmas products being sent as far as Auckland. The bakery has three vans delivering product every day out to Porirua, Petone and the inner city to 80 wholesale customers. Aro St is ideal for having a ready base of loyal, local clientele, he says, and being centrally placed he can look after the wholesale trade. ‘‘Service is a big thing that we focus on as well. If something goes wrong, or something needs to be dropped off or there’s a rush order we can do that.’’ In the meantime all four of the Fuhrer children have been through the company working school holidays and after school. Son Dylan is now the day bakery manager, Oliver is an apprentice, daughter Grace is studying nutritional science at Otago University and Tasty anniversary: Arobake’s Max Fuhrer says being a solid family business has been the key to its longevity. And having great food hasn’t hurt either. Photos: JOHN NICHOLSON/FAIRFAX NZ secondary college student Joshua works in the shop. Fuhrer (it says Maximilian on his business card but he’s usually just Max) left school at 16 with three School C subjects including German, which wasn’t too tough as he spoke it at home anyway. He did his apprenticeship at Johnsonville’s Barends Patisserie and after five years he went to trade school in Zurich to refine his skills and apply the disciplines of quality baking the Swiss are noted for. He says the Swiss are the best bakers in the world, ‘‘well, they’re good at everything they do’’, he laughs. Wife Susie, who has a Dutch pedigree, only accepts they are ‘‘some’’ of the best bakers. (There might be a bit of family bias in there as well, as his late father was Swiss, while his mum Rosina is from Germany.) Fuhrer is particularly proud of his young team, who do the early starts bakers are renowned for. With them starting the day, he can get up as late as 7am, a much more reasonable time for a 50-year-old bloke. It also means he can devote more time to looking after his wholesale customers and developing the business. ‘‘I like to try and grow the people a bit as well and add value to their careers.’’ He has trained 16 apprentices in his time and currently has three, two of whom, Lucy Whitlow and Pauline Cross, were judged among the top nine apprentices in New Zealand this year. Arobake has also helped a vast number of university students fund their studies by serving in the store and some older folks supplement their pensions with some part-time work doing deliveries. ‘‘I worked out we’ve put over $10m in wages into the community over the years,’’ he says. He is still developing the company and for the past four years he’s used a business mentor to help build Arobake even further. He uses social media to attract more customers and there is also an Arobake club with a discounts for members and a lively spot on Facebook. Fuhrer is proud that a number of the team have worked there seven or eight years and many staff come back, with one being back about four times. ‘‘People say it’s hard to work for another bakery after working here.’’ A focus on people is in part a major outcome of Fuhrer’s renewed Christian faith, which is closely linked to a grim period in the business. Raised a Catholic by his devout parents (his mum blessed the business when it started) he says up till then religion wasn’t something he cared about. In fact, his goal when starting the business at 25 was to be a millionaire at 30. The business grew quickly, which was good, but a big building project was taking too long and costing too much money, and Fuhrer says he feared things were ‘‘going down the gurgler’’. Coupled with the pressure of a child on the way, he was feeling the strain. ‘‘I started to pray. It really altered my values.’’ And it was while reading the Bible that he says he was literally floored. He was reading about the account of Jesus appearing to some disciples on the road to Emmaus after his resurrection where they didn’t recognise him. (Luke 24:13-35 for the scripturally minded.) ‘‘Somehow I realised it and I felt like saying to them, ‘Don’t you realise [this is Jesus]! I found myself on the ground, laid flat. It was a huge personal revelation to me.’’ ‘‘I fell in love with Jesus, his [Catholic] church and her teachings. It’s amazing the weird ideas people have about the church, when it’s just about the love of God, about discovering our love-ableness. Which means continually telling the truth about ourselves, both a painful and healing experience. ‘‘We call this confession or reconciliation and done with honest humility it leads to a changed life.’’ Arobake is marking its 25th birthday with a fun day on October 30 at the shop. ❚ For more information go to: arobake.co.nz Top team: Max Fuhrer with awardwinning apprentices Lucy Whitlow, left, and Pauline Cross, both 24, with neenish tarts and miniature carrot cakes. Baking the old-fashioned way HONEY and walnut bread; lemon mousse torte; custard squares – new twists on old recipes and plenty of traditional favourites make up the range of breads and cakes Arobake creates every day. For 25 years the bakery has been making the best of New Zealand favourites and European classics, and it’s always game to try something new. ‘‘We do a chocolate diplomat,’’ says owner Max Fuhrer. ‘‘It’s a beautiful realegg custard, chocolate mousse creation. And our custard squares are pretty famous.’’ One of his personal favourites is the rhubarb and custard tart. ‘‘When it comes warm out of the oven it’s pretty hard to beat.’’ The breads are still made the same oldfashioned way when Arobake opened in 1989, using interrupted fermentation to create a delicious loaf, with a solid crust. Though 25 years ago traditional European bread took a few people a bit of getting used to. ‘‘They would tap the hard crust and say ‘this bread is old, it’s hard’. But when they tried our bread they loved it. ‘‘Good food doesn’t take much to appreciate.’’ While traditional methods are central to Arobake’s philosophy, they also like to do things just a little bit differently. ‘‘We’ve made multigrain bread from day one and it’s still one of our top sellers.’’ But also up there in terms of popularity is a honey ciabatta bread. ‘‘We put quite a lot of honey in it and it’s really successful. We do a walnut and honey bread and that’s hugely popular as well.’’ The term gluten-free applies to some of the cakes made at Arobake, but none of the bread. ‘‘It’s just the nature of the bakery, there’s flour everywhere,’’ he says. Plus, separating the gluten free flour from ordinary flour would be tough in the bread side of the operations. And really, he doesn’t see the point of bread without gluten. ‘‘It’s like alcohol-free beer.’’ ‘‘I say to people, you should try our bread and you mightn’t be allergic to that.’’ That’s because Arobake loaves are very traditional without any additives that might be the things that are affecting people. Fuhrer says some people who are selfdiagnosing themselves as gluten intolerant may just not be getting a quality product. ‘‘Good bread is just flour, water, yeast, salt and sometimes malt which comes from sprouted barley seeds which are roasted and milled to generate sugar for the yeast. ‘‘Then there is interrupted fermentation where we make a dough that’s chilled for about 18 hours. ‘‘What that does is it really hydrates the gluten in the bread and I do wonder if more people would be better off eating more bread like that.’’ Apart from the bakery itself, Arobake products are also available at Moore Wilson’s Fresh Markets in Wellington City, Porirua and Masterton.
© Copyright 2026 Paperzz