How Hector’s Bakery Brought Everything In-House With Vanrooy Machinery
Hector’s Deli has been a Richmond institution since Dom Wilton opened its doors in 2017, turning a former milk bar into one of Melbourne’s most beloved neighbourhood sandwich shops.
When Dom decided it was time to take full control of his baking, he turned to Vanrooy Machinery to help design and equip a production kitchen worthy of the brand he had spent years building.
The result is Hector’s Bakery — a flagship venue that is as much a destination in its own right as it is the engine room behind all four Hector’s Deli locations.
Industry: Deli, Bakery, Sandwich Shop
Location: Richmond, VIC 3121
Their Vanrooy Equipment: Tekno Stamap LAM Bench Pastry Sheeter, Fortuna Bun Divider Rounder, Salva NXE 4 Deck Oven, Spada SG42 Bread Slicer, Escher M100P Spiral Mixer, Salva Iverpan FCSK/22 Classic Retarder Prover, Salva KL9 Kwik Co Convection Oven, IZO Donut Fryer
Dom Wilton didn’t set out to build an empire. In fact, Hector’s Deli wasn’t even the plan.
“I wasn’t really inspired to start Hector’s Deli, it was sort of accidental. We were opening a fine dining restaurant — a 300-seater French restaurant — and we didn’t get the permits for a year and a half. So we thought, having spent 15 years in fine dining, maybe it was time to do something simple. We found a little milk bar in the back streets of Richmond and decided to make amazing sandwiches, and it just took off.”
That simplicity became Hector’s greatest strength. Dom took the precision of fine dining and channelled it into food that anyone could walk in off the street and enjoy. It resonated deeply with Melbourne, and Hector’s quickly earned a loyal following — guests who come back not for a special occasion, but five, six, sometimes seven times a week.
“What I hope guests get when they come to Hector’s is warmth, and love, and a simple feeling of genuine hospitality.”
But growth brings its own challenges. As Hector’s expanded across multiple locations, maintaining the consistency that had made it special became harder to guarantee. For many businesses, the answer is a closed-door production kitchen tucked away from public view. Dom had a different idea entirely.
Bringing It All Back In-House
Hector’s had dabbled with in-house baking out of their South Melbourne store, but quickly outgrew the space and moved to outsourcing. It was a practical solution, but not a permanent one. Dom knew that to truly control his product, he needed to bring baking back under the Hector’s roof.
“The whole reason we did this in such a transparent way was to show people what we’re about. It’s always a fear of mine that people will lump us in with other food businesses that scale too fast. We’re doing everything we can to make sure our product is up there with the best one-off bakeries in the world.”
The answer was Hector’s Bakery — an open, public-facing venue at 33 Stewart Street, Richmond, that serves as both the central production hub for the brand and a destination in its own right. From the open kitchen, guests can watch the team laminating, baking and butchering in real time. It is transparency by design, and a statement of intent about what Hector’s stands for.
Head of Pastry Aram Yun, formerly of Bloomwood, leads the kitchen, producing sourdough Turkish bread, dark rye loaves and pillowy potato buns for all four deli locations. The menu also stretches to cinnamon rolls, maple-glazed doughnuts, pain au chocolat, twice-baked almond croissants and laminated morning buns — classics executed with real skill. Since opening, the cinnamon rolls have been selling out within hours each day.
What drives all of it is a clarity of purpose that Dom has held since day one.
“Like I’m most proud of the fact that we kind of present ourselves as this midway point where people can come and work somewhere that creates accessible casual food, if you will, but it’s steeped deeply in the craft of food and hospitality and being a chef. I’m most proud of the team for rewriting the script a little bit on what’s possible in our industry.”
A Space Built to Perform
Vanrooy’s relationship with the Hector’s team began with an introduction pre-COVID, and when the time came to bring the Richmond bakery to life — a project years in the making that officially launched in 2025 — they chose to work with us, collaborating closely and personally with James Stone, our Sales Manager and Benji Van Rooy, our Managing Director throughout the entire process.
Vanrooy Machinery was involved in the Hector’s Bakery project, working closely with Dom and the team to design a production space that flows seamlessly from one process to the next. Benji and James were both deeply hands-on throughout — helping to curate not just the equipment selection, but the way the entire kitchen comes together as a working environment for Executive Chef Aram Yun and her team.
For Dom, choosing Vanrooy was an extension of the same philosophy that drives everything at Hector’s.
“My experience with Vanrooy is that I’m a perfectionist. When there’s an option to get something that is considered the best in its field, that’s what we want to do. It’s what we do with our sandwiches, it’s what we do with our uniform. It’s an easy choice to use Vanrooy because it’s the best stuff. Vanrooy is old and trusted and well-respected. It just feels like an easy match for our brand.”
The equipment installed covers the full production process. The Escher M100P Spiral Mixer handles dough at volume, while the Tekno Stamap LAM Bench Pastry Sheeter brings precision to laminated pastry work. The Fortuna Bun Divider Rounder ensures consistency across Hector’s signature buns, and the Spada SG42 Bread Slicer keeps service moving efficiently. Proofing is managed through the Salva Iverpan FCSK/22 Classic Retarder Prover, and baking is handled across the Salva NXE 4 Deck Oven and Salva KL9 Kwik Co Convection Oven — a combination that gives the team the flexibility to run a broad and ambitious menu every day. Rounding out the setup, Hector’s also utilises an IZO Donut Fryer — purpose-built for consistent, high-quality donut production.
At a business now spanning six delis and 150 people, Dom is clear about what the right equipment means at this stage of the journey.
“Great equipment allows us to do what we originally set out to do, but at scale. What great equipment does for us is it creates consistency and predictability. And that’s probably the most important value of what we do at Hector’s. As soon as our product has to suffer because we’re scaling, then we have to stop scaling. So the equipment that we get from Vanrooy is a major part of us being able to do that. Great equipment isn’t really a want, it’s a must-have at this point in our business.”
From the sleek timber finishes to the marble floors, Hector’s Bakery is the most refined and expansive venue the brand has produced. The production kitchen sits at its heart — visible, deliberate, and built to a standard that reflects everything Dom has worked toward.
For us at Vanrooy, this project was one we are genuinely proud of. Dom and the entire Hector’s Deli Team has built something special, and being part of that process — from the earliest planning stages through to opening day — is exactly the kind of work we love to do.
