Pandoro Panetteria is a family owned, independent New Zealand bakery that has been producing authentic Italian artisan breads and cakes for 22 years — and the Parnell shop at 427 Parnell Road sits right at the heart of that story. The business began from humble beginnings at the top of Parnell Rise, where bread was baked out the back of a small store and retailed out the front, growing steadily on word of mouth and the superb quality of its handmade products.
Today Pandoro employs around 200 people and operates retail outlets across Auckland — Parnell, Mt Eden and Mt Wellington among them — along with a matching operation in Wellington and a large wholesale bakery supplying restaurants, cafes, lunch bars and caterers. Despite the scale, it remains a family-owned bakery with a focus on natural, organically produced products, staying true to its original formula of premium bakery products with exceptional service. The Parnell shop opens 6:30am to 3:30pm, seven days a week, for breads, cakes, pastry and sandwich products in the authentic artisan Italian tradition.
Pandoro Panetteria's shop at 427 Parnell Road is a piece of living Auckland baking history. Pandoro has operated in New Zealand for 22 years, set up by its original founders to produce and retail the highest quality authentic Italian artisan breads and cakes — and it all began just down the hill, at the top of Parnell Rise. Today the Parnell shop keeps the same simple rhythm the company has always known: doors open at 6:30am, every day of the week, for breads, cakes, pastry and sandwich products made in the authentic artisan Italian tradition. It is a family owned, independent bakery with a stated focus on natural, organically produced products, and one of five Pandoro retail outlets around Auckland.
The business began from humble beginnings. In the original bakery at the top of Parnell Rise, the product was baked out the back of the store and then retailed out the front — a baker's rhythm as old as the trade itself. Pandoro didn't grow through marketing campaigns; it grew on word of mouth and on the superb quality and differentiation offered by its handmade bakery products.
That early formula proved compelling enough that the business soon outgrew its first premises. A separate wholesale bakery was established as demand poured in from restaurants, cafes, lunch bars, caterers and others who wanted Pandoro products to fill their own needs — and the retail-and-wholesale structure that still defines the company was born.
Since those early days, the operation has expanded to five retail outlets across Auckland — Parnell among them, alongside Mt Eden and Mt Wellington — plus a duplication of the whole operation in Wellington, with a wholesale bakery and two retail outlets of its own. The business now employs around 200 people, and yet it remains exactly what it started as: a family owned, independent bakery.
Pandoro has stayed true to what it calls its original formula — premium bakery products with exceptional service — while holding to three foundations it credits for its success: a relentless pursuit of new and exciting bakery products of primarily European origin, being totally uncompromising on quality in ingredients, service and standards, and keeping every product authentic and true to the artisan style.
The Parnell shop carries the breadth of what Pandoro bakes: authentic Italian artisan breads, cakes, pastry and sandwich products. Regulars come for the handmade breads that built the company's reputation, and for cakes and pastries in the same European artisan spirit. The sandwich range makes an easy lunch, filled on bread from the bakery's own ovens. Through it all runs the company's focus on natural, organically produced products — and a willingness to keep innovating, trialling new products and bringing them to market quickly.
The Parnell shop trades Monday to Sunday, 6:30am to 3:30pm. That makes mornings and early lunches the window to shop — this is not an after-work stop — but it also means seven-day trading for weekend visitors to Parnell. The shop sits on Parnell Road in one of Auckland's most characterful neighbourhoods and can be reached on 09 358 1962.
And if you've ever wondered where some of Auckland's cafes, restaurants and caterers get their bread, there is a good chance the answer is Pandoro: the wholesale bakery supplies hospitality businesses across the region, and the Parnell counter is where you can pick up the very same product straight from the source.
Twenty-two years on, Pandoro's Parnell shop remains what it always was: a neighbourhood bakery where the bread is handmade, the cakes are true to the Italian tradition, and the doors open early. For Parnell locals and Aucklanders passing through, it's a straightforward proposition — good bread, made properly, every morning of the week.