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Who
is "Andy"
Please Direct all phone and postal communications to, 43-45 Meander
Valley Road, Westbury |
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The following article is reproduced with permission from
In 1987, a mainlander left his home in Victoria for a look around Tasmania. His family had moved here and he thought he would come for a visit. This guy had worked and lived all around Australia and overseas. That visit changed his life – he never went back to the mainland. In 1990 Andy Oliver purchased the old butcher shop and some adjacent land, on what was the main road between Westbury and Launceston. It became a fruit and vegetable shop. Not too long after, he started building another shop on the vacant land – that was the bakery. Since then it has grown and grown and grown. Originally there was Andy and one girl selling – now it rather amazingly has 24 regular staff.
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When we were sitting to have lunch during our visit, we noticed Andy wandering around the shop, casting a watchful eye over the front counter, the staff, the customers, even down to the position of the salt and pepper shakers on the restaurant tables. It was obvious that this was a man with a huge amount of pride in his business and that he wanted to make sure it was done right! Andy explained, “On any one day we have at least 150 products available to our customers. We open 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Fortunately our business was operational before the restrictive trading hours laws came into force in Tasmania. If you employed less than 100 people there were no restrictions, so we were OK.” Originally Andy’s Bakery was on the highway where people could stop on their way to and from Launceston. Then the highway was re-routed. “We still had a large passing trade and we extended our normal 9 to 5 hours to earlier in the morning and late at night to cater for that trade. Eventually it was easier to stay open 24 hours a day,” Andy said. At the time of writing we know of no other bakery in Australia doing this!
People still come off the highway because of Andy’s reputation. When people travel, they tell their friends. Some of the staff, when they first start work at Andy’s, are amazed how travellers come from all states of Australia and say they have been told by so-and-so that they must call in and taste test various pies, pastries, cakes or slices. This of course is exactly how we discovered Andys ourselves. Kay and Keith Small gave us the nod! “It’s in the genes”, Andy surmised. His Three great grand fathers back, was a baker in Ireland. That gentleman’s daughter came to Australia as governess to Governor Latrobe’s children and settled in Victoria. She later married an Englishman who was appointed lighthouse keeper at Cape Otway for some 30 years. Needless to say this lady was required to do a lot of cooking at the isolated lighthouse. A couple of generations were skipped and Andy’s grandmother opened a food store in Melbourne called “Maypole” which survived the Great Depression, World War II and into the early 1960’s. She ended up with three shops. His mother did her apprenticeship through his grandmother and taught Andy how to cook. “I’ve always loved food but have had no formal training other than hands on provided by my mother,” he commented. From the baker cum shop assistant cum providore cum nearly everything, these days Andy is the planner and creator. He goes overseas to look for new products and new ideas to food exhibitions in Europe on an annual basis at least. “The problem is that I bring back more ideas and more refinements of our current product range than we have time to introduce”, Andy said. “Every time I go away I liaise with suppliers and other bakers, so I can work in their surroundings and always learn some little trick while I am there.” When asked his favourite product lines, he paused very slightly. The bread was easy to answer “Chibato – an Italian slipper bread which is ideal for any occasion”. The pastries and cakes required more consideration. Pepper steak pie won the day and for the cakes and slices – it was a dead heat - French Vanilla slices and the Raspberry Fruit Flans (with local Tasmanian raspberries – of course!)
There is already a public car park and toilets, available for use by any traveller. With the advent of the CMCA rally at Quercus Park Agfest site (some 14 kms away) he opened up his backyard to motorhome parking. There was some opposition from neighbouring towns of Deloraine and Hagley but he convinced the Council that these caravan parks would do nothing for Westbury. The local shop keepers and residents got behind him and he received permission for self-contained vehicles to stop over for 48 hours. The most number of vehicles he has had on site was 41 motorhomes and campervans on the night before the Rally opened. Andy has become a CMCA member and proudly showed me his membership badge (T34926). He has a slide on which attaches to his four wheel drive Land cruiser. Behind that he sometimes tows a 6 m boat. Fishing and travelling are his two great loves so that combination works for him.
Not one to sit on his laurels, Andy had a few new additions coming to
his bakery and fruit/vegetable shop. He has an Ice Cream and Gelati shop
now open. In typical Andy fashion, all the research is done, all
the recipes prepared and tested and now he is just awaiting the arrival
of the freezers. Just remember – you heard it here first - There will
be 22 flavours all made with an emphasis on Tasmanian berries – blackberries,
strawberries, blueberries, etc. etc. He explained the intricacies and
differences between the various styles of ice creams from the super creamy
to the sorbet style – but that would be giving away his secret recipes,
so you will have to wait and do your own taste test.
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