Village Bakehouse set to join the Bathurst community later this year

The site, located on the corner of Durham and Rankin streets, is set to be the third Village Bakehouse in the Central West region and the first featuring a drive through.

Village Bakehouse retail operations manager Taylor Stevenson said they are excited to see progress being made and can't wait to have their first drive through store.

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"It's a new concept ... we've always wanted to have a drive through store," Mr Stevenson said.

While Village Bakehouse began in Dubbo over 30 years ago, the family-owned business has a rich history of baking that goes back four generations.

The store expanded to Orange six years ago and with both bakeries being highly successful opening a Village Bakehouse in Bathurst was the next step.

It has been a long process to get to the point of construction, with council approving the development application back in November 2020, but construction is expected to be completed later this year.

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"We've had Bathurst in our sites for a few years now and its fantastic that it is now coming to fruition, we are really excited to open the store later this year," Mr Stevenson said

"Construction has commenced with full demolition of the site and a brand new building on its way.

"It's due to be finished in the last quarter of 2022."

Being a big store it's anticipated that the addition of Village Bakehouse in Bathurst will bring over 50 new jobs to the town.

The build has already created work for locals with the business using Bathurst-based construction company Regional West Construction (RWC) to complete the project.

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"We are very much looking forward to working with the community of Bathurst," Mr Stevenson said.

"We expect to employ in excess of 50 people initially from directly within the Bathurst community.

"We can't wait to bring our family business to Bathurst, we've heard the people in Bathurst are really excited about it as well."

When the development application was initially lodged there were some concerns about the safety of motorists travelling through the intersection where Village Bakehouse will be based.

After council's approval of the development application in 2020, Transport for NSW made upgrades to the intersection at Durham and Rankin Streets to make the intersection safer.

Following the upgrades, motorists travelling on Rankin Street can no longer cross Durham Street.

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