Alfred Cowley, the great-grandson of Tonga's first baker, and his family have launched a new automated bakery plant today at Fasi-moe-afi in Nuku'alofa.

His son, General Manager Francis Cowley, said the fully automated plant includes new equipment to modernize their production and keep its consistency and quality.

Francis said the bakery bakes 18,000 loaves of bread daily and with the new plant it has the ability to increase capacity, upskill workers and generate job opportunities.

“This has always been my grandfather’s dream to have this automated plant," he said.

Francis' grandfather was the late Frank Cowley Jr. 

Frank Cowley Junior's father was Frank Senior, the son of Alfred Cowley the English baker who came to Tonga in the late ninteenth century to bake a cake for a royal celebration and ended up staying. Alfred was later joined by his sister Eleanor May from England.

Francis said the equipment purchased from Australia is part of an ongoing investment in their business.

Local media were invited to view the plant and meet employees, including Merv Matheson, who has worked for more than 20-years at the bakery.

Meanwhile, Cowley bread is a household name in Tonga where the business has been kept in the family, for several generations, since an Englishman, Alfred Cowley, set up the first bakery in Nuku’alofa in 1893.

Cowley's have been baking bread in Tonga for 125 years.