With more than 60 years of business under its belt, the Drayton Valley Bakery is making a move.
The building it originally started in has a plaque, stating the business was established in 1955. For many years the owners were June and Harold Hesselbarth. Later, the reins of the Bakery were handed over to Trish and Jack Wiersma. They remained the owners until March 2021, when today’s owners, Jackie Young and Eric Bergen, took over.
Though the business is moving, it’s not going far. The original building stands at 5029 51 Avenue, the new location is at 5129 51 Street.
Both Young and Bergen say they understand the heritage this business has in the community. They plan to make no changes to the most important aspects of the Bakery: the recipes.
“In essence, nothing’s changed. We respect heritage, so there are lots that June and Harold had recipes for, and that hasn’t changed since 1955,” says Bergen. “There was stuff that Jack and Trish brought to the table, and that hasn’t changed, either.”
All of the doughnut recipes, cake recipes, bread recipes, and other goodies remain the same. The only change was a tweak to the cookie recipe, which has led to an increase in cookie sales.
Young says everything is done by hand, unlike many businesses in today’s market. They build the doughnuts from scratch. “Someone has to touch them every step of the way,” she says.
“We do our own glazing, icing and everything,” says Bergen.
The duo also retained the previous staff, some of whom have been there for 30 years. “It’s literally the same staff that’s been making it,” says Bergen. “In essence, the product hasn’t changed.”
Bergen says he’s also encouraging the staff to be creative. Employees with favourite or new recipes can approach Bergen and Young about it. If the item would be cost-effective to make and is popular with customers, it will stay on the menu.
Young and Bergen say the reason they chose to make the move was because of the condition of the building. There were many issues with the building, and much of it isn’t up to code as it exists today.
Bergen says he has no doubt it has always been up to code in the past, but as the business changed hands and an inspector came in, those issues had to be dealt with. “That building was up to code in 1955, but because we’re in a new building we have to abide by the current code.” After weighing their options, the two decided moving would be the best use of their money.
Young says one of the perks of the new location is that it’s double the square footage of the previous building. “We want to have a smoothie bar, we want to have a coffee bar, and we want to do tabletop games eventually,” she says.
Right now, Bergen says they have already started inviting the community into their space. They’ve partnered with tutors, giving them a space to work with students in a central location.
As most would expect, the move wasn’t all smooth sailing. Getting a loan was a struggle for the couple, so they ended up using their own money, along with donations from friends and family. They also had to order new equipment because some of the older stuff was in disrepair.
Bergen commended Jack and Harold for their ability to make small repairs and get by with the equipment they had. However, Young and Bergen decided to replace a lot of the items that were beyond repair. However, some of the equipment from the kitchens was moved over.
Young and Bergen have also drawn national attention to the Bakery with their new website. Since they’ve begun posting on social media, they say they’ve had customers drive hours out of their way to visit them.
While the Bakery was shut down from June 17-22, they planned to have a soft opening on June 23 if everything went to plan. Their grand opening will take place in July, though they haven’t yet picked a date. Anyone wanting to know the date can follow the Drayton Valley Bakery on Facebook or visit their website www.draytonvalleybakery.ca.
