Part 1 // Articles
A tradition of innovation. There are some well-kept secrets in Luxembourg. At Roodt-sur-Syre, the ancestral recipe for good bread is kept closely by Jacques Linster, chief executive officer and managing director of Panelux S.A. (Boulangerie Fischer). This small family bakery has grown a lot since it was founded in 1913 in Diekirch.
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oulangerie Fischer has chosen to locate its large-scale production facility in Roodt-sur-Syre, a few kilometres from Luxembourg’s Findel airport. Each day, around the clock, 55 tons of flour are transformed there into bread, pastries and cakes bound for the shelves of more than 80 points of sale in Luxembourg as well as the majority of the country’s large food retail chains. “What is less well known, is that 50% of our products are exported” says Jacques Linster. “They mostly go to neighbouring countries like France, Germany and Scandinavia, but we also have clients in Russia, in Japan and even in China. For instance, we sold bread rolls during the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, in Qingdao, where the nautical competitions were being held.” As a child, Jacques Linster grew up near FAPRAL (Fabrique de Produits Alimentaires S.A.) in Bertrange, a company which was taken over by Joe Fischer at the time. He started working there, as a student, before officially joining the company in 1978. As the holder of a master baker diploma which he obtained in 1982, he continued to perfect his training, by embarking on a tour of France and of Europe as a freelance master baker. “In 1990 I was entrusted with the top job at the family firm by the shareholders, taking over from Joe Fischer, the man who expanded the family business on a large scale, a concept which we continued to develop subsequently” says the senior officer of the company, who has always preferred to remain in the background.
Always listening to the clients’ expectations Since the first family-owned bakery opened in Diekirch in 1913 and to this day, the history of Fischer
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is epitomised by a constant quest for a subtle balance between respecting the firm’s traditional know-how and wanting to progress and to innovate. Driven by this two-pronged ambition, Fischer gradually became the leading bakery in the country, famous for the taste, the freshness and the choice of its products. “The first major turning point occurred in the late 1960s, under the aegis of Joe Fischer” says Jacques Linster. “The traditional sales channel has completely changed over the past 40 years. With the arrival of the supermarkets and other hypermarkets, new consumer behaviours arose. Local neighbourhood shops gave way to consolidated retail stores. It was necessary to acknowlLa grande réussite de Fischer est d’être parvenu à associer modernité et tradition. The major success of Fischer is that it managed to combine modernity with tradi tion.
edge the new reality and adapt to it.” The new supermarkets needed to find suppliers. And since bread remained a regional and highly emotive product, Fischer decided to organise itself to meet the new expectations of the market. In 1978, the Monopole supermarket in Ettelbruck was the first to sign on Fischer as a supplier. Many other would follow suit. “The current success of Fischer is based on its capacity to deliver quality products in great quantity to large retail chains, a capability that was made possible thanks to extensive investments in baking ovens and deep-freeze facilities. The first deep-frozen croissant in dough form was delivered in 1980” says Jacques Linster. The other major success of Fischer is that it managed to combine modernity with tradition. “We are not an industrial bakery which produces a single product all year round. At Fischer, clients can choose from more than 1,000 different product lines, but we make a point of offering a high quality product in every case. Our raw
materials are drawn from Luxembourg’s own agriculture; the flour is milled at a local flour mill, we produce our sourdough bread in keeping with traditional methods, leaving it to ferment for a long time. There is no other secret but tradition.”
The uncontested leader on the market In 1992, a mere two years after taking charge, Jacques Linster managed to group the three production entities (FAPRAL in Bertrange, the industrial bakery of Gilsdorf, near Diekirch, and the bakery of Berdorf near Echternach) on a single site, in the process creating one of the most modern bakeries in Europe, particularly thanks to its deep-freeze facility. “This unique site is the outcome of a determination to compete on the market and meet the demands of the major retail chains. We have invested a lot, both in oven techniques and deep-freeze facilities.” Nowadays, 580 persons work 362 days per year
producing Fischer products and 500 other employees work in sales and marketing for what is a fastgrowing brand. “Fischer employs young people who are trained on the job, people who have a taste for innovation, a taste for taking the initiative and who above all have tremendous knowledge of the food industry. In 2011, for instance, we invested 420,000 euros in training our staff.” Thanks to unimpeachable quality, an effective distribution channel and strict management, Fischer has risen to be one of the leading bakeries of the Greater Region and became the unquestionable leader in Luxembourg. This is a role that it intends to strengthen in future by continuing to invest in the country. “The days when Eugène, Marguerite and Joe Fischer, the founders, would deliver bread using a cart drawn by dogs, then by horses, are long gone” says Jacques Linster. “Nowadays, 40 to 45,000 clients buy our products each day in Luxembourg, which means that we reach out to nearly 200,000 families. We are proud to be able to offer them a wide choice of regional products, with the same unstinting concern for quality as originally.”
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