On 22nd April 2023, Darren and Sharon celebrated 20 years of owning iconic SA food business, Kytons Bakery.
Sharon reflects a little on the last 20 years
Wow – where has that time gone? It has been quite the ride. There was a lot to learn taking over an iconic SA business all those years ago. While Darren and I had owned a 7 day a week bakery for 10 years prior to buying Kytons from family friends John and Carol, a bigger scale production bakery that serviced the whole of SA was something quite new and challenging.
Over the last 20 years, we have grown the business considerably. When we took over Kytons was essentially just community fundraising, but these days we supply many different sectors – supermarkets and gourmet stores, food service companies (who in turn supply cafes, restaurants, hospitals & aged care facilities), our own retail store and pop ups throughout the year, contract baking for other food companies (including the crumble on top of the Yoghurt Shop yoghurts), wholesale and food service in some other states, corporate gifts and online ordering.
The early years were tough – we had little kids and were still learning the ropes as well as working hard to grow the business – they were long days and there were many lessons to learn. Some years have been challenging, some years were even more challenging (thanks 2020 & 2021 and Covid) and other years things fell into place better than we had hoped (and apparently we’ve eaten a lot if these photos are anything to go by!)
But all along we’ve had each other, a fabulous team of staff and of course the tens of thousands of South Australians who love Kytons and our products and have supported us along the way.
We have also been blessed to be a part of the food scene in SA. Supported by Food South Australia and the many other food manufacturers, we have grown and flourished, but also has somewhere to turn when things didn’t go as they were supposed to.
We are very proud of what we’ve achieved in the last 20 years, but the two things we are most proud of –
1.That you can find Kytons in more places than ever before, so more South Australians (and increasingly customers interstate too) can delight in our products. We love that Kytons is part of so many customers special moments in life – hot cross buns at Easter, Christmas Pudding on Christmas Day and those smaller events like enjoying a lamington with your kids or grandkids after school. #makelifespecial
2.That Kytons continue to be an active member of the South Australian community. Our community fundraisers are still incredibly popular amongst schools, sporting, social and “just about everything else” groups. We help these groups raise funds to make their organisations better and we’ve been doing it for over 40 years! Kytons also supports many charities in SA including the Adelaide Zoo, Kickstart for Kids, Catherine House, OzHarvest, Anglicare, Hutt St Centre, Variety Club of SA and more.
Darren, myself and our Kytons team look forward to continuing to bake delicious products that you can enjoy with your family, friends and community for many years to come. Thanks for supporting us along the way.
