McIntosh’s Quality Cakes

It’s common to talk about your workmates as a family away from your family, but McIntosh’s Quality Cakes take this idea literally. The shop, which moved to the centre back in 2011 after building a strong business as a standalone store on Cox’s Road, has become known for employing numerous sets of local sisters – making this bakery a real family affair.

“Everyone who has worked here has had a sibling who has worked here,” says Bronte Sellers who has been with the bakery for five years, working her way up to Assistant Manager. “My sister was here five years prior and there have been three other sets of sisters I have known that have gone through here.”

But McIntosh’s Quality Cakes is not only known for its multiple sister acts. The bakery has a loyal customer base who don’t mind spending a little extra dough on top quality breads, “we make bread fresh daily which is something we really pride ourselves on, a lot of places like the larger chains say it’s fresh bread, but it’s not, it’s frozen dough and they bake it in the morning. There is a very big difference.”

Pride seems to be a common theme when you work at McIntosh’s Bakery, “our chefs are in at 2am every morning cooking, they take a lot of pride in that because there is a lot of work and when you see the amount of work that goes into it each day, you feel proud of it.”

Customer feedback is important to the bakery and in a world where dietary needs are swaying customers away from traditional baking ingredients, Bronte says McIntosh’s is listening to their customers’ needs, “we have wholemeal sourdough because it became a popular request and we are selling it like crazy. We listen to our customers. It’s very important for customers to give feedback.”

In an era of faceless multi-nationals, it’s nice to know customers can affect change in the places they shop and where customer service standards are still a priority. It’s proof quality baked goods are not the only thing being served up at McIntosh’s Quality Cakes.