Jimmy’s pies: the delight of Central

Press, 18 June 1986, Page 35

Jimmy’s pies: the delight of Central

By

NEILL BIRSS

Roxburgh has about 800 people. The town bakery makes about 8000 pies a day. And its pies are one of 14 varieties on sale in the town. Jimmy’s pies from Roxburgh sell all over Southland and Otago. From the small bakery beside the baker’s home, a staff of about nine full and part-timers bake and pack the mince pies. Most are sold in advance. The bakery’s two trucks carry them through the two provinces. Tourists bound for Central Otago resorts from Dunedin and Invercargill buy cartons of them for their freezers. This pushes seasonal production as high as 12,000 pies a day. One enthusiastic customer scoffed nine pies in the bakery shop. The baker is Dennis Kirkpatrick. Jimmy was his father. The bakery had been closed about 1960 with the winding down of the Roxburgh hydro-electric project. The Kirkpatrick family moved up from Invercargill to revive it. Jimmy Kirkpatrick, a baker, re-

turned from World War II like many of his comrades, with problems. He became an alcoholic, and the move to Central Otago was for a fresh start. He beat his addiction and successfully revived the bakery. The key product was the mince pie, from a recipe passed to him by an employer at Stott’s Bakery, Invercargill. Dennis Kirkpatrick worked for the Bank of New Zealand in Southland and Wellington, returning to the family business when his brother, who had worked with the father, was killed in a road crash. When Jimmy died, Dennis continued the business, and a son of Dennis is likely to take over the bakery in his turn. There is little pro-

motion or advertising. “The pies sell themselves,” says Dennis Kirkpatrick. He manages the bakery from within, working from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. five days a week. The banking work has helped him, but he does not want the administrative function to grow further. Therefore he does not want the business to expand. If it did, he realises, he would have to take his hands out of the dough and spend most of his time behind a desk. This, he thinks, might damage the quality he prizes. “If I’m out of the bakery, I cannot keep a finger in the pie, if you’ll excuse the pun,” Dennis says. Three times a week, bakery trucks service shops in the south between the Haast and Bluff. From Invercargill and Dunedin they are backloaded with ingredients for the pies, the best that Dennis can buy. The bakery is behind a tiny shop, well labelled as Jimmy’s. It is modern, and reasonably sized, if narrow. The work pace is fast, and the atmosphere busy, contrasting with the quiet, usually empty road outside. A well camouflaged business success.