Our story
Four generations. One oven. Never extinguished.
Apex Bakery was founded in 1924 by Albert Hoffmann. Two years later, twelve-year-old Keith Fechner asked if there was any work going — and started that same day.
When Keith, known as "Chiney," turned 33, the chance to buy the bakery came up. He borrowed and begged what he could, and made it his. The business has stayed in the Fechner family ever since — through Nipper, Dave and Jonny, and now Corey — four generations baking Barossa bread in the same wood-fired Scotch oven, fired every working day since 1924.
All doughs go through a minimum ten-hour ferment, some as long as sixteen. It's the way Chiney learned to do it, and the family still thinks he got it right the first time.
Four generations
1924
Albert Hoffmann
Founds the bakery in Tanunda
1926 →
Keith "Chiney" Fechner
Starts at 12, buys the bakery at 33
Later gens
Nipper, Dave & Jonny
Carry the family trade forward
Today
Corey Fechner
Fourth generation, still baking
