General News
14 November, 2024
Let’s celebrate
On Friday November 15, the Bow Bakery is celebrating its 50th year in business.
We will have lucky shopper prizes throughout the day in both shops, including a grand prize of $300 worth of vouchers from some of our local businesses, this will be drawn at the end of the day in both Rainbow and Hopetoun shops.
Our favourite roaster, Leigh Mellington, from Beat Coffee, our coffee bean of choice, will be in the house at the Hopetoun store in the morning, and Rainbow in the afternoon. Please come in and say hello, he will have plenty of his coffee bean range available to purchase, and coffee making advice!!
Now, a bit of history.
In May, 1974, Roger and Val Cocks purchased the then, Merritts bakery, and travelled the long distance from Nhill (with their three children, at that stage, one more to arrive a few years later), to Rainbow and started their new business, as bakers!
Sadly, Roger passed away in 1984, and Val carried on running the bakery, with son, Stuart and Bob Abbott baking. Val and employee, Elaine Abbott, ran the shop at that time, and through the years, daughters, Sharyn and Tracey also helped in the shop.
In 2001, Val’s sons (Stuart and Mark) took over the bakery, and also bought the Hopetoun bakery, and in 2004 Val finally retired!!
So here we are in 2024, still in the baking business, with Stuart and Mark still baking, along with Celie Fuller, our number one apprentice, and our new part timer, Jay Gaona. Through the time, there have been so many others in the bakehouse (Bob Abbott, Andrew Brooks, Tyson Wedding, Shaun Roberts, Marcus Hiscock, Dwyane Hiscock, Simon Clugston, Anthony Riordan, Jon Stephens, Michael McCartney, to name a few), and we can’t forget our kids too, who spent many a school holiday, or week night, when short staffed, in the bakehouse! Then there is front of house, our customer service staff. Over many years the bakery has employed about 38 extra staff, not including family, way too many to mention!
We would like to thank all our staff over the years, and our kids too. Without all of you, we wouldn’t be still here today. And, to all our dedicated customers, especially those that still only eat ‘Bow Bakery’ bread, and those that come from far and wide to Rainbow, just to get their Bakery favourites, thank you, thank you, thank you!!
We hope to see you all on Friday the 15th!
CONTRIBUTED BY Caroline, Mark, Jacinta and Stuart Cocks