THE graveyard shift is a thing of the past for Brad Steele.

The man behind many of the delicious baked goods at Steele's Bakery in Warwick, has recently started doing more "user friendly" hours.

"I used to start at midnight and finish around 10am, but a knee replacement forced me to change things around a bit," Mr Steele said.

"It's from all those years playing basketball and volleyball.

"Now I start at 6am and go through to about 2pm."

Steele's Bakery has been a part of the Warwick landscape now for nine years, but Brad's bakery story starts way back in the mid 70s.

"I began my apprenticeship here in Warwick in 1974," Mr Steele said.

"I worked at Molly's Cake Shop, where Ray White is now.

"Then my brother Wayne and I opened a bakery in the early 80s, where Mussels is now.

"I took off after two years, but he went on for 17 years with the shop."

Mr Steele's next port of call was Maryborough where we met wife and business partner Gail.

"I stayed there for four years, before we both took off to Quilpie and opened a bakery there," he said.

"It covered a huge area, about 900sqkm and was always busy.

"There was a population of only 700 people but the turnover was about the same as it is here in Warwick.

"We were baking bread that was trucked to Birdsville, Bedourie and even South Australia."

Mr Steele said they expanded that business to add a pizza shop.

"On opening night, our pizza trays still hadn't arrived by train," he said.

"So we had 45 orders and three trays.

"People had to wait over an hour for their pizzas, but they waited.

"We were the only pizza shop for about 200km.

Next was Bundaberg, for a sea-change.

"We didn't see much of the sea though, not trying to run a seven-day supermarket," Mr Steele said.

Eventually the couple settled on Warwick and haven't looked back.

"It took us a while to find a suitable spot," Mr Steele said.

"People thought we were mad not setting up in the CBD, but we've got a great spot here.

"No one ever struggles to find a park."

Anyone who has had one of those award winning pies will hope they stay for good.