On 18 and 19 May backaldrin hosted the Austrian Baker Days at their headquarters in Asten for the fourth time. Snack ideas under a street food theme, product innovations and varied specialist presentations offered around 4,000 bakers from all over the world new inspiration for their daily business. The accompanying programme included action with the Kornspitz Sport Team as well as guided tours of the PANEUM – Wunderkammer of Bread.

For the fourth time backaldrin invited customers from all over the world to the family business’ headquarters in Asten, Upper Austria. Around 4,000 bakers from a total of 22 countries accepted the invitation: in addition to Austria, Germany and Switzerland, other large groups of visitors came from Poland, Hungary, Croatia and Bosnia. They all enjoyed the varied supporting programme and the numerous product ideas. The bakery industry is changing as never before and, for continued success, everyone must stay on the ball. Host Augendopler also addressed this topic in his lecture, Everything Changes – Even for Bakers! Two key criteria for success are quality and a sense for trends, both of which the Austrian market leader concentrated the event on. In this respect, visitors were able to submit bread for quality testing according to the DLG scheme, and snack ideas in the street food tent were dedicated to the ever-growing trend towards the consumption of food away from home.

Innovative snacks and new products

In the backaldrin bakeries, there was a steady stream of freshly baked bread and pastries. The spectrum ranged from lye specialities, sweet and savoury ancient grain creations, barbecue breads and wood-fired oven breads to the new Muesli Bread. Presented for the first time, and creating quite a sensation, Cookie Dough To Go invited guests to take a sweet nibble. “The large crowd and the interest in our products and ideas were very positive for us. In many discussions with our national and international guests, we were assured that, together, we are well on our way to creating a successful future for the baking industry,” says backaldrin Managing Director Harald Deller.

Fair sporting and craft competitions

Between enjoying the culinary delights, there was also plenty of sports activity for visitors in the sports tent, which contained a goal wall, a table tennis table, a biathlon shooting range and an ergometer racer. Guests were able to compete against athletes from backaldrin’s Kornspitz Sport Team: among them were biathlon stars Simon Eder and Julian Eberhard, table tennis ace Liu Jia, players of the Upper Austrian football club LASK, members of the cycling team Felbermayr and, of course, Kornspitz sports director and former professional biathlete Christoph Sumann. A handcraft competition on Sunday was the highlight of the second day of the event. Nearly 40 bakers competed in the Austrian Kaiser Roll Championship, measuring themselves in speed and skill in the shaping of the classic “hand roll”, which is regarded as the supreme discipline of artisanal baking. Andreas Maderna of the bakery Grimm successfully defended his title as Kaiser Roll Champion 2016 and was again able to celebrate victory. The awards ceremony was the culmination of the two-day fourth Austrian Baker Days.

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