A week or so ago I popped into a new Bin Inn in Takanini when I was up in Auckland. Guess what I found?
Our favourite Laucke Golden Wholemeal bread mix is back in the New Zealand market, and Bin Inn is carrying it! Struan Farm is now stocked up big time for the farmstay season. I've since found it at the Bin Inn in Waitara to the south and Te Awamutu to the north. Bin Inn Waitara will be my normal supply source.
You may or may not recall the back story on this. Since we opened the farmstay here at Struan Farm I made freshly baked wholemeal bread for our guests using Laucke Golden Wholemeal bread mix. I used the bread machine for kneading, but then proofed and baked it in a proper tin in the oven. I delivered it warm from the oven if possible, wrapped in a vintage linen tea towel. After two years of rave reviews with this bread, Countdown discontinued the mix, without any notice. I then went around buying up boxes to stockpile as much as I could for as long as I could. I got in touch with the NZ distributor, who'd said they would supply me directly, but when I went to do that they advised that the product had been discontinued. I got in touch with Laucke in Australia. They are a family owned business and were wonderful, but the cost of shipping relatively low volumes of the product directly to us in NZ was silly, it just wasn't going to work.
You know me. I then experimented with the various bread mixes available trying to find an acceptable and comparable replacement. Fortunately this was during winter, when the farmstay was relatively quiet. "Comparable" was the problem, there just aren't any retail wholemeal bread mixes, they're mostly whole grain, basically white bread with bits and pieces. I landed on Champion Wholemeal bread mix to fill the void, a product commercially available in 10 kg sacks through Davis Trading Company. Since we're a business and GST registered this was possible. I must say that Davis Trading is a great company. I now buy most if not all of our muesli ingredients from them in commercial quantities as a result.
It turns out Laucke's NZ distributor went out of business. A new distributorship arrangement has been put into place and all is now right with the world. I emailed Laucke to express my happiness at finding their Golden Wholemeal bread mix once again here in NZ. Companies need to hear these things from their loyal customers. I received a very nice email back. The owner of Bin Inn Takanini has since a good laugh with John, he remembers my joyous celebration at discovering the mix in his shop. I made a point of putting a nice comment on his FB page, always a good thing these days in retail.
It's important to let people know when they make you happy. It seems they remember that and you.
p.s. Just so you know, I make the "medium style loaf" that's explained on the back of the bottom corner of the box. We prefer our wholemeal bread a bit less dense and it seems most if not all of our guests do too. The European farmstay guests we've had have been particularly complimentary. Happy notes have been written in the guest book about our bread, Laucke's and mine. It's back!
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