The Byron Bay Cookie Company was founded by Maggi Miles and Gary Lines, fashion industry workers who returned to their native Australia after six years in New York. While considering their next business venture, the couple started baking for local markets under the name Pickles, Pies and Petticoats.

Ms Miles soon developed a White Choc Chunk & Macadamia Cookie and a Triple Choc Fudge Cookie that remain the company’s top-selling products. Demand for the products grew from the local café then a national listing in department store Myer convinced the couple they should concentrate on baking. The company’s name was changed officially to the Byron Bay Cookie Company in the late 1990s.

Today, the business supplies gourmet food stores across Australia, plus Qantas, Virgin Blue and Rex Airlines, as well as Harvey Nichols, Selfridges, John Lewis and the Windsor Farm Shop in the UK, and department stores in Singapore and Ireland.

Last year, Byron Bay received a gold award at the Great Taste Awards, organised by the Guild of Fine Food Retailers, for its Sticky Date & Ginger Café Cookie. Other products include the Café Cookie range (packed by the dozen in disposable counter-top boxes).

There is also a gluten- and wheat-free range of four shortbreads and cookies. The company says this range retains the flavour of the originals thanks to the use of locally sourced gluten-free flour without additives or preservatives, plus the artisan baking methods used for all products.

This year the company relaunched its ranges with new packaging, depicting the lifestyle of 1930s Australia and featuring images of “fun-filled days spent on unspoilt Australian beaches”.

Along with the new packaging are some clever new products, including cookie ‘towers’, tins containing individually wrapped cookies and smaller gift packs featuring ‘baby button’ cookies.

As well as new edible products, the company has introduced a new form of packaging. Made from corn starch, the Plantic tray is said to be completely safe for humans, as well as being biodegradable.

Add to this display jars filled with cookies and shortbreads, the nine-strong range of savoury cheese crackers, flatbreads and breadsticks and the ability to order any product in bulk for foodservice, and you can see this is a company which has expanded beyond its humble farmhouse kitchen beginnings. However, it remains commited to ‘home-made’ cookies.

Byron Bay’s products;

Cookies:

White Choc Chunk & Macadamia Nut

Triple Choc Chunk

Sticky Date & Ginger

White Chocolate Apricot Nougat

Fig & Pecan

Natural Honey & Oatmeal

Shortbreads:

Lemon & Macadamia Nut

Butterscotch & Almond

Savouries:

Parmesan Crackers (with Fennel Seed or Cayenne Pepper)

Polenta Crisps (with coriander and Jalapeno)

Flatbreads (with Sesame & Poppyseed, Jordanian Sumac or Semi-Dried Kalamata Olive)

Breadsticks (with Organic Sea Salt, Roast Garlic & Cracked Black Pepper)