A story about bread and life

The history of Dencopan bread begins at the turn of the last century, with the baker Ioan Poiană. It was the 1930s, and every night the baker from Turcheș kneaded and baked bread, and in the morning he loaded it into the cart and set off on the streets of Dârste and Noua, two neighborhoods from the entrance to Braşov. The children ran down the road when they heard the sound of the bell announcing the arrival of the bread. "Poienaru's bread", as it was called.

The little ones knew that they would receive, as always, a horn or a pretzel. The story of Ioan Poiana's family went through all the trials of the turbulent century that wrote its destiny. Likewise the story of "Poienaru's bread" that the grandchildren brought back to life, under the logo "Dencopan".

The dream of Ioan Poiana

Ioan Poiană was born on May 10, 1901, and at the age of 10 he was orphaned by his father. He soon became a journeyman at the Siegens bakery in Prundul Rozelor (today Enescu Square in the historic center of Brașov). For 4 years he stayed with the Siegens family, where he learned everything about dough, bread and the organization of a bakery according to the German method. During all these years, he also learned about family, kindness and honor, with the Siegens becoming his life model. In 1928, the young baker Poiana married Ecaterina Sipos, the daughter of merchants from Turcheș. With the help of his in-laws and his wife, he sets up a small bakery, with a wood-burning oven, right in the family yard. The bread made with mayo and potatoes was in great demand, and the Romanian craftsman, who had learned his trade from the Saxons and received support from his Hungarian in-laws, became a recognized baker.

The bakery with two ovens

Demand being high for bread, jimblă (sandwich) and croissants with butter, and the business flourishing, in 1932, Ioan and Ecaterina Poiană took heart and built a new, more modern bakery with two brick ovens. They equipped it with a mixer, extra tubs, dough cutter for jimble and croissants, potato washer, bag shaker and other machinery, all after the German model, like the Siegens. They also took out a loan of 150.000 lei and built a new staff house, a diesel tank, a stable and a garage. They had wagons, a sleigh, a carriage and a pickup truck. The bread and the rest of the products were baked at night, and in the morning Poiana's carts took the fresh goods along the Turcheș-Dârste-Noua route. There were 7 bakeries in the Săcele area, but each one had a well-defined area for sale. Although competitors, the bakers – Hungarian, Saxon or Romanian – understood and respected each other.

In the "Săceleana" magazine from the 30s, there was an advertisement for Ioan Poiana's Bakery.
"When you economize
And you want to sweeten the bitter
Consume with joy
"Poienaru" bread only.

The bitter bread of war

A year after the start of the war, in 1941, the flour crisis leaves more and more families without bread on the table. The army takes control of the bakery, and soldiers enter the employees' home body. In the first part of the war, Ioan Poiana is concentrated at work in Arad, and after the arrival of the Russians the situation worsens. Poiana's bakery now had to bake bread only for the army, with Russian soldiers who had never done this before. Ioan Poiana was also responsible for them, but also for the bread produced. For the locals, only sourdough bread was baked, and that was insufficient.

Illusions and terror

After the departure of the Russians, Ioan Poiana and his old friend Hans Siegens thought that life would return to the old ways. So they got down to business, together this time, to prepare the bakery. They repaired the furnaces and the installations, and since everything was going like clockwork, they even planned a loan. But the year 1948 brought the nationalization that shattered any illusion. Poiana's bakery was included in the inventory of the Bakery Company, and Poiana's baker was employed by the state. Saxon bakers from Brasov and neighboring villages, who had not already been deported to Russia, were driven from their homes. The Siegens lived for a time with their former apprentice and friend. The terror was just beginning. In May 1952, Ioan and Ecaterina Poiană together with their two youngest children were taken out of the house with the strictest necessity and deported with forced residence to Tg. I'm Scythian.

The first pension came too late

The baker was now obliged to earn a living for his family by working at the station, loading logs. They stayed away from home for almost three years, and when they returned to Turcheș, only the two brick ovens remained in the bakery, and state tenants lived in their house. "Poienaru's bread" was now only a painful memory, Ioan Poiană having to make bread in the state bakeries until 1961. In August, when he should have received his first pension, the baker Ioan Poiană had just died, and the state confiscated his family and this last bit of money.

From "Painea lui Poienaru" to Dencopan

After the 90s, Ecaterina Poiana, the stalwart wife of the baker, managed to regain the bakery, as much as was left: two ovens and the walls. But the joy was great. After 5 years, during which it was rented to a former sailor who wanted to make bread, two of Poiana's grandsons decided to resume and carry on the family tradition. In memory of grandfather Poiană and to make grandmother's heart happy, Ferencz and Rudolf Denes repaired the almost 70-year-old ovens, invested in new equipment and learned the purpose of bread right in the bakery, carrying on the story of "Poienaru's Bread" under Dencopan logo.
"The smell of bread is life", said Ecaterina Poiană, when the brick ovens from the family's work baked bread again.

A modern bakery

It was Christmas Eve in 1998, when the Denes brothers bought a new mixer, becoming some of Nova Pan's first customers. And just as the Poiana grandparents understood, in 1932, that they needed a bigger and more modern bakery, in order for their bread to reach the market, so the grandchildren, in the years that followed, risked a loan to build and use a new factory, according to all European requirements and standards.
Dencopan currently produces a rich assortment of bread, but also scones, pretzels and other specialties, having 12 own points of sale and always being in step with new technologies and market requirements. The old bakery of grandfather Ioan Poiana rests today, keeping within its walls the story of a troubled century.