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Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Century Bakery Hastings to reopen after Christmas Eve fire

By Sahiban Hyde
Hawkes Bay Today·
27 Sep, 2019 12:33 AM3 mins to read

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Daniel Nguyen and his wife Vannon Eang co-own the Century Bakery that is set to reopen on October 5. Photo / Paul Taylor

Daniel Nguyen and his wife Vannon Eang co-own the Century Bakery that is set to reopen on October 5. Photo / Paul Taylor

A popular Hastings bakery is set to reopen next week after a Christmas Eve fire ravaged its premises.

Century Bakery, on Heretaunga St West, will open its open its door again on October 5 and owners Vannon Eang and Daniel Nguyen are just happy to be back at work.

The rebuild took between three and four months and the bakery was waiting on council's approval before it reopened.

"Hopefully our customers will be happy to see the bakery open and they will be back."

Some old customers had already approached the bakery and congratulated them on the reopening, she said.

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The bakery will be serving up all the good ol' favourites and will be keeping the same hours it had before the fire.

"Coconut buns, yellow buns, meatballs, fresh bread were the most popular and we will be making them again.

"We are a real bakery and we bake every day, it's all fresh."

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Baking every day requires dedication and Eang, her husband, and son will be up at the crack of dawn to bake for the masses.

"At the moment it is just me, my husband and 22-year-old son working at the bakery.

"The bakery opens at 4am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday, so we have to be up before that to get ready."

Unfortunately, the staff members who worked at the bakery before the fire have since found other jobs and Eang is now on the lookout for more staff including a baker, a customer service assistant, and a chef-hand.

"It was too long for them to wait."

The fateful fire occurred on Christmas Eve, 2018, when the owners had already left for the day.

They were told of the fire by a someone else and when they reached the shop, it had already gutted the premises.

They had owned the bakery, along with five other businesses on that stretch of Heretaunga St, for 12 years before the fire and it was their only source of income.

To this day they don't know the cause of the fire.

"It was an accident. We don't know what happened."

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At the time Fire and Emergency NZ specialist investigator Murray Kidd said the fire was not suspicious, but there was "too much" damage to determine exactly what the cause was.

"It would appear that something has either failed or been left turned on, or something of that nature."

Kidd said he was certain it had started in the back of the building which housed the bakery and prep areas.

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