Page 29 - Food & Drink Business Magazine September 2018

DIENTS
Pure as the driven snow
Good eggs and other special ingredients are behind the success of Australia’s highest bakehouse, Snowy Mountains Cookies, writes Louisa Hearn.
WHEN Nolen and Daisy Oayda first dreamed of opening a cookie factory in the heart of the Snowy Mountains, they vowed they would only ever use the purest and simplest ingredients.
The couple have never wavered from that ideal in the 12 years they have been baking cookies in their regional hometown of Jindabyne, in spite of the many challenges.
“We started using free range eggs from day one, even
though we were told by many different distributors
and industry people that this was ridiculous and we were wasting our time,”
Nolen Oayda says. “Our philosophy has
always been to keep our ingredients really simple so ideally what you have in your
home pantry are the same things that we use.”
The couple continues to source only the highest quality
products such as sulphite-free
shredded coconut.” ✷
This is a philosophy that the business stands by, in spite of the complexities of sourcing bulk ingredients in a small regional centre such as Jindabyne.
“For the last year or two, just getting a hold of butter has been difficult, let alone getting it at the right price,” says Oayda. “But we still have to buy it so we just accept the higher price.”
He says it is this unwavering focus on quality ingredients
— all while tightly managing costs — that has driven much of their business success.
“We’re still seen as one of the more expensive suppliers, but we’ve always offered a quality product and a high level of service, and that has given us longevity. We may not have the biggest volumes in the world, but that is not what we’re trying to do.”
Another important part of
IN FOCUS
INGRE
FOOD SAFETY FIRST
Snowy Mountains Cookies has been servicing the gluten-free market for many years, and on the factory floor a gluten-free day is treated as a special occasion, says Nolen Oayda, co-founder of Snowy Mountains Cookies.
“We worked with HACCP
to develop our procedures to ensure we were well prepared for a gluten-free baking day.”
This means washing down walls, posting signs around the facility to indicate it is a gluten free day, and ensuring all ingredients are strictly gluten free.
“When we are ordering dates, for example, they sometimes powder them so they don’t stick together, so you’d have to double check this powder doesn’t contain any gluten”.
When it comes to packaging, the manufacturer single wraps all gluten-free products to help its foodservice customers
avoid mix-ups and cross- contamination.
“This is to prevent a cafe from opening up the packaging and accidentally putting the gluten products in the gluten-free jar — which was something that did happen a number of years ago,”
Oayda says.
“We haven’t had gluten detected in any of our gluten- free product range for the entire time we’ve been baking. Someone suffering coeliac disease really
needs that confidence.”
produce, with free range eggs, real butter, and couverture chocolate at the top of the list.
“We have no preservatives in any of our ingredients whatsoever, and our cookies are also free of artificial colours and flavours, yet we can have a 12-month shelf life on them,” Oayda says.
As a long-time supplier to the highly competitive airline food sector, and inaugural winner of the RSPCA Good Egg award, he says their strategy continues to pay off.
“We are in the Snowy Mountains because we wanted
to start a business based around our lifestyle. We did it
here not because it was the most profitable location to set
up a manufacturing plant, but because the quality of life here was what we’re all about.
“Hence we follow through with all our ingredients, even if
that means paying more for
their success story has also been the ability to continually innovate to accommodate menu changes for key business partners in the airline industry.
“Our output and capacity are big enough to deal with the airline industry, and we have done so for ten years without ever having issues with supply,” Oayda says.
“We’ve been able to pick up new customers and create new products, and not get bogged down with issues associated with high-yields.”
Because airline passengers want something new every time they fly, he says, menu changes can change as often as every three months.
“We’re small enough to come up with new products and are always trying to do something different.”
One of those areas of innovation has been the
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