Patties Foods celebrates 50 years

Patties Foods is celebrating its 50^th birthday this week its home town of Bairnsdale, in regional Victoria.

Here, the company operates a state-of-the-art bakery and employs more than 400 local staff. Each year the company bakes more than 450 million pastry.

Its brands – including Four’N Twenty, Herbert Adams, Patties and Nanna’s – are market leaders in their respective categories.

Nationally, Patties Foods has more than 50 per cent value share of the frozen savoury food 47 per cent of the frozen fruit pie markets.

Patties Foods is the fourth largest purchaser of beef in Australia. The company uses more than 130 tonnes a week of prime Aussie meat for its meat pies.

Patties Foods “A testament to hard work and vision”

Patties Foods chairman, Mark Smith, said the milestone was testament to the hard work and vision of the founders, and the great people who work at the company.

“This is a great Australian success story, and everyone who has played a part has every right to be proud of the achievement, and celebrate the moment,” Mr Smith said.

With humble beginnings as a cake shop in Lakes Entrance, Patties Foods was founded by Dutch migrants Peter and Annie Rijs.

All six Rijs sons worked in the business. Richard Rijs, director of Patties Foods, said the values instilled by his late parents – to treat everyone with respect – have been a major keystone to the company’s success.

Founding values remain true

“The company was founded on honesty, integrity and fairness, and those values hold true today.

“I was 13 when my parents took over the cake shop, and I remember how nervous Mum was in that first week, when the takings were only $100, and they still had to pay for their ingredients.

“One of my father’s mantras was, if you are not growing, you are going backwards, so as a company we have always been keen to take on new challenges.

“Acquiring the Sunicrust Bakery in Bairnsdale in 1976 was a major milestone, tripling the size of our business.  In 1985 we built a new pie factory in Bairnsdale, and we started supplying Patties Pies to Melbourne in 1986.

“Other milestones include purchasing the major brands, Four’N Twenty, Herbert Adams and Nanna’s, from Simplot in 2003, and listing the company on the ASX in 2006.

“It’s great to see our products sold at every supermarket and at most convenience stores and service stations around the country, and enjoyed by so many people,” Mr Rijs said.

Earlier this year in June Patties Foods announced it had accepted a takeover bid for $230 million from Private Equity Partners (PEP).  The takeover is expected to take effect from September.

Sign up to C&I’s free bi-weekly newsletter here to receive the latest industry news every Tuesday and Thursday. Follow C&I on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.