At the Connole family's Sonoma bakery outlets, $7 hand-made organic sourdough batards and wholewheat boules are flying off the shelves.

Sales have been rising 15 to 20 per cent a year over the past five years, forcing the artisan baker to move to larger premises and open more stores.

Head baker and operations manager Jordan Miller says the only "threat" to Sonoma's impressive sales growth is the birth of other artisan bakers - "they're popping up all over the place" - rather than cheap house brand bread sold by Woolworths, Coles and Aldi.

"The sort of people that buy 85¢ loaves are families who are not necessarily interested in buying quality bread – they just want quantity to feed their family," says Miller.

"At 85¢ a loaf that stuff wouldn't touch a pair of baker's hands … it would go through a machine and pop out the other end," he says.