Meet the mother-daughter duo at the helm of this $800 million bakery

For more than 40 years, this mother-daughter duo has been at the helm of Australia’s most successful bakery franchise. Bakers Delight was founded by Lesley Gillespie and her husband, Roger, in 1980, and today their daughter Elise Gillespie runs the $800 million company with her husband, David Christie. They explain the secret to the success of keeping it all in the family. 

When Lesley and Roger Gillespie OAMs opened their first Bakers Delight store as a young married couple in Melbourne in 1980, their daughter Elise was merely a “twinkle in her father’s eye.”  

Elise arrived in the world the following year – right when her parents and their business partner Gary Stephenson were throwing everything they had at their struggling business. Their life savings were dwindling before their eyes.