Harold Kuipers looks back on 26 year of baking in Brandon

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/01/2019 (2528 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Harold Kuipers may no longer be the owner of Kuipers Family Bakery, but that doesn’t mean he hung up his baker’s hat.

The longtime owner of the bakery on First Street sold the business to his former lead baker on Jan. 1 and has taken a step back from running the day-to-day operations of one of Brandon’s last independent bakeries.

“I was surprised by how good it feels,” Kuipers said. “I’m doing the exact same thing I always did but for six hours a day.”

He’s still working at the bakery he bought 26 years ago, but no longer has to worry about the finances or has the weight of the entire operation on his shoulders.

Baking is a profession that runs in the Kuipers family’s blood. His father was a baker in Holland before moving to Canada and continued after relocating to Brandon. The whole family worked in the bakery, but Kuipers said he knew from a young age he would be doing it for years to come.

“I think just from watching my dad do it, watching the joy, my dad loved it,” he said. “It’s fast-paced, lots of little jobs going on at once. I’m wired and well-suited for the bakery.

“A restless individual who’s not lazy will do well in the food-service industry.”

The first bakery he owned was Rolling Pin Bakery in Killarney. Kuipers helped start it with his family but eventually bought out his brother’s share of the business, which he said was a great feeling.

“It was like ‘Yes, it’s all mine now’ … There’s a sense of you get to set the sail and pick the direction. You have control over the quality, the ingredients; you have control.”

Kuipers owned Rolling Pin Bakery for 14 years, where he learned to cherish food and the process of making it. He said good food is almost spiritual — it’s good for both the body and soul.

“There’s something about going to work in the middle of the night or early in the morning and taking a bunch of dry ingredients and producing food; making food is pretty cool when you think about it … The fact that I produce food isn’t lost on me.”

After Rolling Pin, Kuipers worked at Robin Hood Flour in sales but said it wasn’t the right fit for him. He woke up in a hotel room in Montreal one day and decided to quit the job. Instead, he committed to buying a bakery in Brandon.

He bought the former Green Acres Bakery and continued the legacy of the small, independent bakery, working almost around the clock to put out fresh products.

“I just made sure whatever we’re making, it should be really, really good and consistent … Your integrity is questioned, not only on how you act but on the product you attempt to sell, and if the quality is not there, the integrity is not there anymore.”

Kuipers operated the bakery for more than two and a half decades, showing up at 3:30 a.m. almost every day to start baking bread.

He said that while very little changed over the course of his ownership, the new owner, Curtis Fedorowich, has already made his mark on the business by starting a Facebook page. Social media isn’t something Kuipers understands, but it has allowed the new owner to quickly put his own stamp on the business.

Kuipers said he knew it was time to sell the business and retire when he noticed his attitude started to change about managing the business.

“I always said to myself years ago, ‘When you start to think you want to make your business smaller because you’re starting to dislike working in a big bakery, that’s when you should consider selling.”

He said he was “getting a little thinner” with his ability to tolerate customer complaints and problems with suppliers. Instead of cutting down on staff or paring down the work, he knew it was time for someone new to take over the baker’s hat.

While he’s still in the store four days a week, Kuipers said it has been an easy transition from owner to employee. He wrote “co-worker” on his hat, so staff could more easily make the adjustment.

“Yes, I was the boss here for 26 years, but I am not the boss. It’s easy for me to draw the line and go ‘Yeah, (Fedorowich) is in charge.’”

Now that Kuipers is semi-retired, he said he wants people to know there’s more to him than just being the city’s baker. It’s important to him that people know there is more to him than what he did at the bakery.

He owns a few hot rods, builds model trains and wants to get back into playing the piano. The plan is to play music in hospitals or retirement homes with his girlfriend, places he can volunteer to perform for free.

“I don’t want to get paid to play, that takes the fun out of it.”

Kuipers said one of the things he is most proud of over the last 26 years in Brandon is how big a role the bakery has quietly played in the community. Every year, he cooks the turkeys for the Westman Traditional Christmas Dinner and donates 1,000 packs of buns. He said the business has also played a big role in Brandon Pride Week.

“We became a part the community, so I think that for me that was important to recognize that we’re part of the community. It wasn’t about money, it was just about what we can do to make the community better.”

» dmay@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @DrewMay_