Bakers Delight finished a year-long trial of a compact bakery layout that could open many previously unsuitable locations to the brand, according to the franchise’s joint chief executive.
Trial details and early findings
The experiment was carried out at Camberwell Place in Melbourne and featured self-service coffee stations together with heated display cabinets. The pilot started roughly twelve months ago and wrapped up in August, giving the team enough time to assess both customer response and operational efficiency.
“That opens up probably 40 sites around Australia that may not have been viable for us,” David Christie told a business outlet.
During the test, the brand moved an existing store to a site that had been blocked by three-phase power limits and a large extraction system required for conventional ovens, demonstrating that the new format could overcome those constraints.
Expansion targets and operational tweaks
Today the franchise runs about 525 bakeries nationwide and is working toward roughly 700 locations by 2030. It plans to launch between 17 and 25 new outlets each year, with Queensland highlighted as a key growth area.
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New ovens trialled in the compact format consume less electricity and eliminate the need for traditional extraction, while still matching the output of standard units. This change reduces the overall power draw and simplifies installation in tighter spaces.
Automation tools are also being piloted at five sites to cut manual steps in dough preparation and baking.
The back-end improvements could let the franchise enter malls, service stations and other tight spaces that were previously off-limits. By shrinking the footprint of equipment, the brand can fit a full bakery operation into locations that once seemed too small.
Self-service coffee and heated cabinets were removed after the trial; the latter were found to compromise product freshness, and coffee sales did not justify broader investment. The decision to drop those features was based on both customer feedback and cost analysis.
Product lines were trimmed for the test without harming sales, prompting a network-wide focus on best-selling items and fresh-baked goods.