Dutch baker Pré Pain has 30 years’ experience supplying Europe with a delicious range of bake-off lines, including best-in-class french baguettes and petit pains. Commercial Director Gerben Vollenbroek outlined the company’s history and the ongoing series of innovations to enhance the product line, in conversation with Phil Nicholls.
Pré Pain is working through a programme of premiumisation as part of its vision for the future. The company has state-ofthe-art bakery technology and years of experience, but this does not mean that Pré Pain is standing still.
“Our short to mid-term strategic aim,” explained Commercial Director Gerben Vollenbroek, “is to change our portfolio to a more balanced combination of top-quality commodity products on the one hand, and added-value artisan and premium products on the other. This combination allows us and our customers to accelerate growth whilst giving a superior consumer experience.”
Pré Pain’s founding company, Smithuis, started in 1889 as an artisan bakery in Oldenzaal. Smithuis created Pré Pain in 1992 as the first company in The Netherlands to produce ISB bread.
In 2014, Pré Pain established a stone oven line; one of the longest in Europe. In the following year, Pré Pain became a part of ARYZTA, the international bakery company. Further expansion followed in 2017 with the installation of a dedicated sourdough kitchen, then 2022 brought heavy investment in its french bread line with a stress-free dough preparation. The result of this investment programme is that Pré Pain now produces best-in-class french baguettes and petit pains.
Innovative breads
T he company remains based at Oldenzaal in the east of The Netherlands, with eight production lines at the facility, five of them being mega lines. The factory has 220 employees, operates around the clock and enjoys BRC and IFS certification. Pré Pain supplies
customers in The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland and around Europe.
“We have an annual capacity to produce 90,000 tonnes of product,” said Mr Vollenbroek. “Through 2022, Pré Pain created 650 million rolls, baguettes and loaves.
“Our list of biggest selling items includes french and artisan baguettes, kaiser rolls, artisan and italian rolls, plus a premium stone oven loaf that we produce for the UK market. In 2023, we expect our next generation french baguettes and petit pains to be among the biggest selling products.”
The extensive Pré Pain range of bake-off products are primarily delivered frozen however they still produce some ambient product for key customers. This portfolio is steadily being upgraded through the premiumisation programme.
“Our premium portfolio has three pillars,” Mr Vollenbroek continued. “Stone oven sourdough products baked with a living starter culture, next generation french baguettes and petit pains made with a stress-free dough preparation, and finally artisan bread, baguettes and rolls made with roasted and cooked seeds and kernels.
“In the future, we still want to serve our key customers topquality commodity bread, but our anticipated growth will come from this premium portfolio, as we wish to lead the market in innovative and speciality bread products.”
Investment and growth
As a market-leading bakery, Pré Pain maintains an ongoing investment strategy to consolidate its position and ensure quality products for customers. “We recently invested in machinery to allow us to roast and cook seeds and kernels, which are then entered directly into the dough, to ensure the best possible taste for our breads and rolls,” Mr Vollenbroek explained. “Later this year, we will take delivery of a new machine that will allow us to produce a new range of rolls in many different shapes and sizes, to accommodate the wide range of requirements from our customers. These ongoing investments all support the growth of our premium product portfolio.”
Across the broad Pré Pain portfolio, there are many features which help the company stand out from the competition. Pré Pain is one of the very few industrial bakers to make sourdough bread with a living starter culture, giving its bread a unique taste. Also, the roasted seeds concept gives a delicious nutty flavour to Pré Pain’s bread.
Alongside these unique concepts, Pré Pain also operates in a highly efficient manner, enabling it to make very affordable high-quality products.
“We are alone in this part of Europe in our ability to make the quality of the next generation french baguettes and petit pains that we are now able to bake,” Mr Vollenbroek said. “The features that set these items apart from our competitor products are the light airy crumb, a very thin crispy crust and the fact that the bread stays fresh for longer.”
Continual improvement
Pré Pain works in close cooperation with suppliers and partners, collaborating with key customers to co-develop new concepts and lines. This process involves a shared vision to initiate new product development and achieve category growth.
“Our partners are crucial to our success,” explained Mr Vollenbroek. “We have our own innovation team and an
industrial“PréPainisoneoftheveryfewbakerstomakesourdoughgivingbreadwithalivingstarterculture, itsbreadauniquetaste”
in-house test bakery that cooperates closely with customer teams. We also rely on our supply partners to share new and best practices, helping us to continue to improve what we do.”
Continual improvement is also a feature of Pré Pain’s sustainability programme. The company builds environmental efficiencies into its everyday operations and supply chains. This involves a particular focus on reducing its carbon footprint and all types of waste, notably food and packaging, plus a drive to improve the company’s water usage.
“At Pré Pain, we have installed a rework machine on our biggest line,” Mr Vollenbroek said. “With this machine, we reuse finished breads that have been disapproved due to size or shape, then
recycle them to make new breads, significantly reducing waste. In conjunction, we are making our cooling and freezing equipment more sustainable by increasing energy efficiency.”
While the bakery industry was negatively affected by the recent global crises, bread will always remain an important product for customers. Pré Pain’s strategy of growing with premium products is expected to unlock opportunities to gain further market share in the coming years. The challenge remains to find the right skilled workforce for this premiumisation journey –people such as bakers and technicians.
“We are already executing our strategy to premiumise our portfolio,” explained Mr Vollenbroek. “For the future,
“What excites me is when I see Pré Pain introduce new and successful products into a supermarket or a restaurant; fresh items that help our customers achieve their business goals”
we are looking at investing in new lines that support this growth. We want to further roll out our unique concepts of next generation french bread and stone oven sourdough bread, plus our lines featuring roasted and cooked seeds and kernels.
“Our mission is to serve inspiration,” he concluded. “We work very hard every day to help our customers grow their ISB sales line and, in turn, provide their consumers with tasty and nutritious bakery products. What excites me is when I see Pré Pain introduce new and successful products into a supermarket or a restaurant; fresh items that help our customers achieve their business goals.”
