QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

The King of Cakes: Wolfgang Kelke

“We have very strong business ties not only with the German community here but also with the other ethnic communities such as Austrians, Swiss, French, and Italians. We do the catering for the opening night of the German Film Festival in Brisbane. “The Winter Festival in Brisbane’s King George Square will hopefully become an annual event, with food stalls from many European countries – and Glühwein from the Alpine Bar! We display and sell our products at the ‘Ekka’ [Royal National Show] each August, and soon after that comes Oktoberfest, which is the biggest event for the German community, and is as true to the Munich Oktoberfest as possible. It’s held on the second and third weeks of October. “At present we have on the drawing boards plans to set up King of Cakes as a franchise, so you should

“All of this was a big challenge to keep customers happy and satisfy the growing demand! To supply all our cooking needs, we took over a facility in the Brisbane suburb of Seventeen Mile Rocks. We were devastated when it was submerged in the January 2011 floods: King of Cakes had a (temporary) heart attack and was in a business coma for almost two months! But we were very lucky and were able to find a temporary production site on the other side of town to produce the basics for our customers. Also, former employees who had gone out on their own were able to produce some breads and pastries for us, but at the end of the day, we had lost over half a million dollars in damaged stock, machinery and revenue, postponing further growth plans for a number of years. “We were lucky in an unlucky situation that a lot of great people came in and helped wherever they could. Happier news was that none of the coldroom panels was damaged and 80% of the machinery could be rebuilt. We Bavarians never give up! So we have restored the facility and are now back to full strength and creativity. “After the floods a lot of our wholesale customers had to look for other suppliers. We lost a lot of this side of the business but we are gradually finding more. For example we have picked up the new Hilton Hotel on the Gold Coast, and our markets with Jan Powers’ Farmers Markets in the City, Manly, New Farm, Mitchelton, and Gold Coast are almost as strong as before the floods.

see more of our name around the place. Obviously we will have to upgrade our production facilities, and this will require a lot of money. So we will be looking for

investors. But for now we have manufacturing, retail, and functions.

I think that what makes us successful is that we do take great pride in the products we produce, and we are happy in our work and service.”

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