Bakers: Lesley and Roger Gillespie
Founding Joint CEOs of Baker's
Delight
The Baker’s Delight
story
The Gillespies met when Lesley took a part-time job at a bakery in Melbourne
while finishing her science degree (Lesley has a BSc (Hons), and a Diploma
of Education from
Monash University). (Roger is a fourth generation Baker).
By 1980 they were married with a young baby, and keen to create a livelihood
for the family. They understood the bakery business well and decided to go
out on their own, with a friend Gary Stephenson also joining as a partner in
the early years.
“We set up our first bakery in Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn on a shoestring
budget and the belief that you can do anything in your twenties,” Gillespie
says.
“My main aim when we first started was that we would have enough money to
choose which schools to send our children to.”
Needless to say, that first bakery was successful. The Gillespies bought out
Stephenson in 1982 when he decided to return to full-time study and got bank
funding to expand.
By 1988 the chain was now 15 bakeries, but a problem had emerged.
“With each bakery we opened, the sales weren’t as good and the profits
weren’t as good, so we could see that we couldn’t go along like this and
there had to be a better way of linking the bakery manager’s responsibility,
accountability and performance to the profits,” Gillespie says.
“In the 1980s there was a noticeable influx of franchises into Australia –
McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut came and were opening
multiple sites – so we thought that maybe franchising might be the way to do
it. After considerable investigation we flicked over into franchising and
we’ve never looked back.”
The company now has 700 bakeries in Australia, New Zealand and Canada (where
it is under the COBS Bread brand),
all under the franchise model. Gillespie says Baker’s Delight will open its
first US store in Connecticut in June this year, with a franchisee
confirmed.(Source:
BRW - Rich Wowen
2015)
The Gillespie Family:
Bakers Delight executive chairman Roger Gillespie with his wife and
Co-chair Lesley and kids Elise Christie (front), Aaron Gillespie and
David Christie (back) in their Camberwell store.
Aaron
Gillespie is 35 (2015), lives in Canada and manages the operation
there, called Cobs Bread. Elise Christie, 33, (2015) and her husband
David, are both general managers of operations in Australia.
With over 700 bakeries
worldwide and global turnover for Bakers Delight/COBS Bread of $575M in
2012/13, the company earns the title of ‘Australia’s Most Successful Bakery
Franchise.'
Over the past 35 years, this Australian success story has built a strong
brand with a distinctive image and has fostered a loyal customer base in
local communities around Australia.
Bakers Delight holds a healthy 12.7 per cent of the Australian bread market
(Roy Morgan Single Source data September 2013) – a stable market based on
Australia's love for freshly baked bread, and growing demand for
nutritionally sound produce.
New Zealand has over 25 bakeries on both the North and South Islands.
In Canada, Bakers Delight trades as 'COBS Bread'. Since 2003, COBS Bread has
grown close to 80 bakeries across three Canadian Provinces. The ultimate
goal is to expand this number to hundreds of bakeries. Find out more at
www.cobsbread.com
Within Bakers Delight, company owned bakeries represent close to 10 percent
of the network. They are an important asset as they provide not only a
source of profit, but an excellent training environment.
Behind every delighted customer there lies a Bakers Delight bakery, a bakery
operator, 130 specialist support staff, approximately 15,000 bakery
employees serving around 2 million customers each and every week.
Bakers Delight Holdings is a member of the Franchise Council of Australia
(FCA) and Franchise Association of New Zealand (FANZ). (Source:
Baker's
Delight)
Did You Know?
Since 1999, Bakers Delight has raised more than $7.7
million for Breast Cancer Network Australia (BCNA), directly
supporting thousands of Australian women and their families through
their breast cancer journey.
2013 was a record breaking year with $1.2 million raised during the
Pink Bun Campaign. During the campaign, 100% of every Pink Bun sold
goes to BCNA. (Source:
Baker's
Delight)
Gillespies believes corporate sponsorship
as a key part of the business, and they link their marketing efforts
with philanthropy. In 2004, the group gave an estimated $25 million
worth of bread to charity.
Roger Gillespie says: "Our franchisees pay about 2% of their revenue
to the company for group marketing costs. This goes towards
television advertising and other costs of that order. On top of that
we try to encourage individual franchises to make extra
philanthropic efforts on their own.
It might be something like getting involved with the
Breast Cancer Network
fundraising or it might be a simple effort like sponsoring the "best
and fairest" with the local footy team. I believe it all adds up to
make a better company." (Source:
Ovations)
Lesley’s first full time job was as a secondary school teacher at Footscray
High School, starting in 1978, after completing her BSc Hons and Dip Ed at
Monash University in 1977. In 1980 she started Bakers Delight in Hawthorn,
Victoria with two other partners, Roger Gillespie (her husband) and Gary
Stephenson. She had gained bakery experience from working extensively in the
Old Style Bread Centre chain (later to become Brumby’s) whilst studying at
university.
In 1983 Lesley and Roger bought out their partner Gary Stephenson and they
started to develop Bakers Delight which is now the largest national chain of
bakeries in Australia with approaching 700 bakeries operating throughout
Australia, New Zealand & Canada and more recently the US.
From 1989 to 1999, Lesley also worked part-time as a secondary school
teacher at Loreto Mandeville Hall in Toorak Victoria.
In the last few years she and Roger have recently stepped back from the
active running of Bakers Delight, sitting only on its Board. Their children
have taken on the CEO roles, with their son Aaron over-seeing the Canada and
US operations while their daughter Elise and son-in-law David Christie
over-seeing operations in Australia and New Zealand.
Along the way there have been highlights and acknowledgements, these include
the Boroondara Citizen of the Year 2002 (shared with her husband Roger) and
being awarded an OAM in 2006 in recognition of her work in business and
philanthropy.
"Giving back is important. Since 2015 the Gillespie Family Foundation has
supported the work of the World Mosquito Program whose aim is to eliminate
mosquito-borne viral diseases such as dengue fever, zika, yellow fever and
chikungunya from the world. This program is a Monash initiative."
Further more recent highlights have been the induction into the Hall of Fame
at Swinburne University’s Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship in
2008 (shared with Roger), a Fellowship from Monash University 2013 and in
2015 being appointed as the Chair of the Business School Advisory Board for
Swinburne University of Technology, this same University conferring an
Honorary Doctorate in Business in 2018. Bakers Delight and Swinburne have
had a close involvement over many years in the area of industry based
learning (IBL) for Swinburne students.
Giving back is important. Since 2015 the Gillespie Family Foundation has
supported the work of the World Mosquito Program whose aim is to eliminate
mosquito-borne viral diseases such as dengue fever, zika, yellow fever and
chikungunya from the world. This program is a Monash initiative. The
Gillespie Family Foundation has supported a wide range of not for profit
organisations ranging from secondary school scholarships, research into high
nutrient wheat and research into organ rejection.
Lesley sits on a number of boards: The Australian Business Growth Fund,
Institute of Public Affairs and Loreto Toorak. She also chairs the
Philanthropic Advisory Committee for the World Mosquito Program and is on
Monash University’s Change It For Good campaign council.
However, Lesley is most proud of the success of Bakers Delight which has
been built on the hard work of a great many people, its core strength is
with the franchise network, the people who day in and day out and strive to
serve their communities. A great example of Australian endeavour and
enterprise.
Lesley Gillespie OAM and Roger Gillespie OAM – Bakers Delight
The Champion of Entrepreneurship award is a lifetime achievement
award that recognises individuals who: have a long-term record of
outstanding entrepreneurial achievement; have driven the growth of
an Australian company, or companies, over a sustained period of
time; and have made a significant contribution to their community.
Lesley Gillespie is Co-Founder, Executive Director and Joint CEO of
Bakers Delight as well as a Director and co-owner of the grocery
outlet chain NQR.
Her achievements include being a finalist in the 2004 Prime
Minister’s Award for Community Partnerships, receiving the 2002
Boroondara Citizen of the Year (shared with her husband Roger), an
OAM in 2006 and a Fellowship from Monash University in 2013 where
she gained an Honours Degree in Science and a Diploma of Education.
Apart from the ongoing and active partnership of Bakers Delight and
BCNA, Lesley is also the patron of the Margaret Pratt Foundation
which supports research into transplanted organ rejection.
Roger Gillespie is Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Bakers
Delight, the largest national chain of bakeries in Australia with
over 700 bakeries operating throughout Australia, New Zealand and
Canada. Roger has been inducted into the Hall of Fame for both the
Swinburne University of Technology’s Australian Graduate School of
Entrepreneurship (AGSE) and the Franchising Council of Australia.
Roger has been named ‘Citizen of the Year’ for the City of
Boroondara (shared with his wife Lesley) and was granted an Order of
Australia for his tireless work within the community. He is a Board
member of the Cranlana Programme, a Director of Epic Health,
Director of NQR, President of the Australian Retailers’ Association
and a Board member of the Bionics Institute.
Links:
BRW:
Baker's Delight co-founder Lesley Gillespie on her journey to the BRW Rich
Women List
1. Individually, you are to complete a timeline for
Baker's Delight and also add a Plot Profile.
For example:
1992 - The First Bakers Delight TV commercial airs.
Plot Profile - what was the commercial? Can you find it
on YouTube?
1994 - the first Cheesymite Scroll. Plot
Profile: What's the story behind this scroll?
1999 - Partnership with Breast Cancer Network Australia.
Plot Profile: Why did BD support this charity?
1999 - Beginning of Bunraiser. Plot
Profile: our bakeries in WA began raising funds for the Princess
Margaret Hospital in Perth. Bundraiser Day is held every year in the lead up
to Easter to support children's hospitals all around Australia.
2004 - Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Community
Business Partnership. Plot Profile: Why this top award?
2. What will you put on your timeline and information
into the Plot Profile? You need to justify your decisions by answer the
simple question "Why?"
3. Check with a partner. Did you have the same
timeline and Plot Profiles?
Creating
a new bun or scroll...
PrimaryMiddle
Secondary
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:Critical and creative thinking Australian
Curriculum General Capability:Personal and social capability
Background to Activity:
In 1994, the Cheesymite Scroll was created by a hungry baker as a way to
combine two great flavours. It was originally a morning or afternoon snack,
but quickly became adopted by Australians as an iconic snack for any time.
Since 1994, we’ve sold almost 72 million Cheesymite Scrolls!
(Source:
Baker's Delight)
Cheesymite Scrolls from Baker's
Delight
1. Go to Baker's Delight and find
the cost for the Cheesymite Scrolls - for the original, the whole grain and
the mini version.