Iconic roll-over: SA’s Balfours bought by interstate rival

SA bakery Balfours, makers of the iconic frog cake, has been bought by a Western Australian company.

Balfours worker Sharron Lithgow with one of the company’s famous frog cakes in 2019. Picture Dean Martin

Iconic South Australian baker Balfours has been sold to an interstate rival, with the Western Australian manufacturer of Mrs Macs Pies set to take over on August 1.

Aus Pie Co said it had plans to take the SA brand national, but would not rule out job losses in the takeover.

Balfours is famous for its range of pies, pasties and sausage rolls, along with a wide selection of sweets, but it perhaps best known for its unique green, pink and brown frog cakes.

Workers at the company’s Dudley Park factory told 7NEWS they were made aware of the change of ownership on Thursday, with reassurances little would change at the workplace.

“It was all pretty brief,” one worker said of the announcement.

“The place has been sold and everything will be business as usual … I don’t really want to be looking for more work.”

Another worker said they were told “there would be no problem with our jobs”.

Aus Pie Co CEO Bruce Feodoroff told 7NEWS that “it’s business as usual plan at this point of time to grow the brand”.

“Currently the market for Balfours is about 85 per cent in South Australia and we look to take it nationally.”

However Mr Feodoroff stopped short of ruling out the possibility of redundancies in the future.

“We don’t know until we get further insight into the business,” he said.

Balfours has been owned by South Australian company San Remo since 2008, with that organisation stating it was “first and foremost a pasta company” and that “the time has now come for us to focus on growing our significant core business globally”.

The treats have become something of a symbol of South Australia since they were first created back in 1922.

The company is almost as old as South Australia itself, tracing its origins back to 1853 – 17 years after the colony’s foundation.

According to the company’s website Scottish immigrants James Calder and his wife Margaret (nee Balfour) established their first bakery and shop at 130 Rundle Street in Adelaide.

Six years later, Margaret’s nephew, John Balfour, joined the firm as an apprentice. The firm became famous for its biscuits, even supplying them to royalty when Queen Victoria’s son, Prince Alfred, visited Australia in 1867.