Beechworth was written up in Slow Magazine. It was a great article. The one thing they got wrong was about Beechworth Bakery. They wrote, “Remarkably, there are no franchised businesses in Beechworth, apart from the Beechworth Bakery, which has become so successful it has franchises in Bendigo, Ballarat, Healesville, Echuca, and Albury.” 

They got it wrong: we are not franchised. We’re a family-owned business. But our managers do treat and run the business like it’s their own, and all of our staff are empowered to make decisions.

I’ve got to tell you, I do believe in franchising. But we are very happy at the moment being family-owned. Two families: the Matassonis and the O’Tooles.

We do get lots of write-ups in the media. They often get the story a bit wrong, but how important is it? The media have been good to us over the years, and they still are. We all love a good story. Just make sure you have a story worth telling.