'Francly' speaking, rising frozen dough business in France bakes up nice profits.

Let them eat cake ... and pie ... and pastry!

Eighty percent of French households buy cakes, pies, or pastries at least once a week. The industrial bakery sector has around 16% of the national bread and cake market and it is gaining ground due to the flexibility of frozen products.

Indeed, the market for quick frozen baked goods is just waiting to take off. However, this has been the case since 1987, leading some industry observers to say that Sara Lee was the right company in the right place but at the wrong time. Frozen food in France is linked to instant gratification and the time necessary to thaw a frozen cake puts consumers off. This is a country, after all, where there is nearly always a bakery, within walking distance.

Business for industrial bakeries in France can typically be divided into three categories: bread, 70%; what the French call "viennoiserie" (croissants, brioches, etc.), 20%; and pastry which includes cakes), 10%. In volume, bread commands a 74% share while viennoiserie has 20% and pastry five percent. In bread, raw-dough frozen products account for 39% and pre-cooked frozen products have a 10% share; in viennoiselie, frozen has a 45% claim, while in pastry it has a 61% share. So say the latest figures published by the French Syndicat National des industries de la Boulangerie Patisserie (SNIBP).

The SNIBP embraces 170 businesses in this sector in France, including producers of frozen products. Industrially baked products are distributed to retailers (55%), canteen and institutional restaurants (24%), baking terminals (18%) and caterers (3%).

Frozen dough, which has been used as an ingredient to make viennoiserie for some years now, came on the scene in France in 1984. The product enables retailers to provide fresh bread and warm viennoiseries in high volumes. It also gives a psychological boost to sales as consumers associate warm baked goods with fresh fare. Odors wafting out of these "bakeries" help attract customers.

Frozen dough is also a boon for exporters who want to ship tasty but short shelf life French classic bread: the baguette. More than one billion francs of turnover and 1,000 jobs have been generated making frozen dough for baguette sales abroad.

On the domestic front, industrial baking companies have made important investments in freezing equipment and this infrastructure has often replaced ovens. The SNIBP is a keen proponent of the use of frozen baked goods and terminals. According to the French trade association, such enable a retail outlet to maintain high standards of taste, freshness, diversity of product and service to the consumer while also allowing the operator to control costs and have dependable production.

Frozen baked goods fall into three segments in France. Desserts (entremets) represent 55% of the volume and pies account for 40%. Individual portion product volumes remain insignificant. Weight Watchers France is positioned in this riche. The frozen desserts market is expanding by around 15% a year. Frozen pies are doing even better, with an 18% increment per annum. Imports have around 20% of this market, but are stagnating.

The French generally prefer traditional domestic recipes. Products such as frozen strudel, which the Picard chain retails, remain exotic novelties. Tatin, a classic French apple pie recipe that features caramelized apple quarters, dominates the sector with a 40% share. Hard discounter Leader Price, which sells exclusively Leader Price private label products, has a tarte tatin. Cora hypermarkets also retail the product in basic and classic forms, under private label. Additionally, Cora carries quick frozen lemon meringue pie.

Chocolate-based frozen specialties claim a 40% share of the dessert market. And dark chocolate seduces the French more readily than milk chocolate.

This is still a rather confidential sector in France which dedicates a mere Ffr15 million to advertising. It is therefore a young market with great potential, where a plethora of regional brands can be found. But there are also great challenges.

"Few, if any, realize the degree to which frozen baked goods are an asset for retailers," said Gilles Amherdt, product manager at Brossard Surgeles. "This is a market where anything is possible. A lot of big French operators are waiting on the sidelines."

Amherdt called the 10 Million ton frozen dessert figure "significant," but added that important investments would be required to develop this market. "In frozen baked goods, there are leaders and followers," he said. "And we are a leader with a volume of 5,000 tons. This market is expanding by 10% a year in tonnage and value."

Brossard Surgeles flagship dessert products are its Tatin and Normande apple pies, raspberry pie, black forest cake, and Lenotre recipe Plaisir walnut cake. "We put out a range of Lenotre recipes to avail ourselves of this great pastry chefs creativity and to add value to Brossard frozen desserts," said the product manager. "This signature fine gives us the leadership in upmarket frozen desserts. Lenotre creates the recipes in collaboration with Brossard's R&D department. These products are made industrially, of course, but still rely on manual labor for a lot of the steps."

The company is revamping its packaging. "This is to clarify our offer by segment: in sweet products, pies, desserts and our Lenotre line and savoury products, nibbles for cocktails, quiche and pies," explained Amherdt. "However, except for the nibbles and the Lenotre desserts the packaging's new look will feature a unifying code, an old-fashioned bakery-delicatessen in the background. The French market is lacking a graphic code and Brossard, by creating one, is appropriating it."

A box of four frozen Brossard eclairs retails for Ffr13 in super and hypermarkets and freezer centers. This means the consumer is paying half of what the product would go for in the fresh pastry department of a supermarket (and under half of what an eclair, which can run to Ffr10 apiece, would cost in a bakery). The Lenotre Plaisir walnut cake also retails for half the price of a fresh version.

Retailing accounts for about half of frozen dessert volume, with freezer centers absorbing a significant 4,000 tons. Caterers now use around 14,000 tons annually, compared to 9,000 in 1987. Frozen desserts' key assets are price, quality and innovation. At an average of Ffr68, they can cost up to 50% less than fresh cakes and pies -- and their quality is frequently equal to if not superior to that of the fresh desserts.

Delifrance (Grand Moulins de Paris) is a major player in the pie segment. Frigecreme targets pie and other dessert consumers with its Valoray brand. Cogesal (Unilever), La Tarteliere (Iglo) and Brossard are retail innovators, while Pomona, Davigel, Prodat, Astra, Motta, Nouki and Mikogel are considered to be the leaders in catering.

Margins are attractive in desserts (entremets, or cakes) and this segment is one that has many possibilities to extend lines with innovative products. The French rarely serve frozen cake or pie at dinner parties, but they are a good back-up when friends drop in unexpectedly. Value for money is a key factor, but quality must be no less than that found in products consumers buy at bakeries.

The French eat around 165 grains of bread per day. This adds up to 3.6 billion tons each year. The frozen uncooked baguette category, with 45% of the industrial product market, has racked up an average increase of 18% since 1988. Pre-cooked frozen baguettes are gaining ground, claiming around 12% of the industrially baked segment, up 6% since 1998. Most of this output is exported.

"Our frozen baked goods volumes are not significant due to the diversity of products," said Henri Burgelin, public relations manager at Grand Moulins de Paris, which markets frozen pastry in France under the Delifrance brand. The company is present in all sectors -- bread, vienois-series, cakes, pies and pastry -- with complete lines going to both caterers and retailers. French freezer centers and home delivery services carry the Patigel brand. Frozen dough is also offered.

"Frozen dough is a sector which is expanding. Fresh baked good volumes are rising in hypermarkets (stores with at least 4,000 square meters of space) but in supermarkets frozen is gaining ground," Burgelin said. "We do not sell frozen baguettes in France but there are 150 franchised Delifrance stores marketing them for us in six other countries in Europe. We have very good penetration in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany where the French baguette (albeit quick frozen) has a cachet of an upmarket novelty. In France, on the other hand, the only asset our frozen bread has in a market which still favors traditional bakeries is alternate technology."

Grand Moulins de Paris' turnover in frozen baked goods in 1994 totaled Ffr700 million. Vie de France, which distributed the group's frozen baguettes in the US, is no longer a member of the group.

According to the FICUR, the frozen dough-based products and baked goods market in France expanded by a whopping 224% from 1988 to 1992. A French consulting firm, A.N.D., maintains that growth and profit were highest in the industrial read and cake sector. There are 210 industrial bakers in France and most of them make frozen dough. This product has been a source of contention in a country where the price of bread contributed to a revolution. [By the way, Marie-Antoinette did not say of the rabble, "Let them eat cake," She said, "Let them eat brioche."]

In 1993, in a protective move to save so-called "authentic" bakers from industrialists using frozen dough and nibbling market shares, a government decree defined a traditional French bread as something which is neither frozen in any phase of production nor contains any additives.

"This decree was implemented to calm traditional bakers down," said Nicole Watelet, general secretary of the Syndicat National des Industries de la Boulangerie Patisserie. "It is impossible, either in appearance or in taste, to distinguish an industrial bread from a `traditional' bread because freezing is done before the bread is baked."

Even if bread is kneaded, shaped and baked where it is sold, there is no guarantee that it wasn't previously frozen. Frozen dough has been warmly received by most retailers. Individually shaped loaves of bread are quick frozen at -40'C. After delivery they are fermented and baked as needed.

There are 1,000 outlets functioning as such in France, with bakeries as well as supermarkets adopting this system. While the Carrefour chain does not use frozen dough, the industrial bakery Touflet reports that such accounts for 65% of its revenues. "We have developed a chain of 30 Pains et Fantaisies shops equipped with terminals to handle frozen bread," explained Gerard Delaitre, Touflet's manager. "Fresh bread comes out of the oven all day and costs less than in traditional bakeries."

Industrial baker Jacquet provides a follow-up for retailers under the aegis of its frozen bread and viennoiserie activities. "We offer technical assistance to set up the terminal and assure training so that our standards of quality are met," said Jean-Marie Hurel, operations manager. (Jacquet became a subsidiary of Limagrain in the spring of 1995 because the former was overextended, heavily in debt and said to be on the brink of filling a bankruptcy petition.)

According to S.A. Krabansky, a manufacturer that targets the retail sector throughout Europe, exports accounted for half the annual turnover of Ffr61 million in 1993. Its line is carried by Delhaize and Diversi Food S.A (distributor) in Belgium; Waitrose, Tesco and Delice de France (distributor) in the UK; and Gourmet Express GmbH (distributor) in Germany. Clients on the domestic front include Ets. Catteau, P&O Ferries, Eurodisney, Prodirest-Discol, Soldexho, Eurotunnel and Promodes.

Among the company's flagship frozen products are pre-cooked frozen bread and oven-ready and uncooked frozen vienoisserie. However, it has not neglected the high-potential mini-pastry market, investing Ffr23 million last year to open a new plant. Its five production lines include a Frigoscandia freezer with capacity for 4,000 baguettes an hour.

Six times a month, Poilane delivers a truckload of bread still warm from the ovens in Bievre to the Paris market of Rungis. There it is quick frozen (-60 [degrees] C) before being shipped to the USA, where it arrives at -40 [degrees] C.

"A `traditional' French baker by law does not have the right to freeze cakes and pastries," said Jean-Pierre Marc, who worked in that field for 15 years. "But this goes on a lot, and everyone knows it. Pastries and cakes are frozen at -40 [degrees] C and taken out to meet demand. Lenotre sells a line of upmarket quick frozen cakes in domestic retail shops. But it is a little known fact that when you buy a `fresh' cake in a Lenotre pastry shop, all of the preparation has been quick frozen. This is done properly, but Christmas logs [traditional log-shaped cakes the French eat at Christmas dinner], for example, are made and frozen in July so that they can be finished and sold in December."

Another traditional cake, the "galette de roi" [eaten in honor of the three wise men who brought gifts to the infant Jesus], is made by Lenotre in September to be sold in January. Marc, a pastry chef, admitted that when there isn't time to bake a cake, he will buy frozen cake -- "but only from a Picard freezer center." A favorite product is the Petit Trianon brand croquant au chocolat, he added: "It is as good as a product one would buy in a bakery, and at Ffr38, it costs half as much. In a bakery, a portion of cake costs on the average Ffr17."

Ideally, hypermarkets should have at least 20 frozen baked good items in their freezer cases. However, according to a Cogesal study, there are only one or two brands for an average of ten items in hypermarkets and one or two brands in supermarkets for an average of six.

There's no such shortage at Picard, though. The freezer center's May catalog included a new Francois Theron three-chocolate cake, selling at Ffr61.90 for four to six portions (400 grams). The base is made of a coffee-flavored chocolate cake and the topping features black, white and milk chocolate mousse. Other Francois Theron cake offerings include a red fruit charlotte, 500 grams, Ffr65.50; lemon, passion fruit, mango and raspberry mousse on a rum flavored genoise, 500g, Ffr55.40; chocolate roll with bittersweet chocolate mousse, walnuts and chocolate icing, 400g, Ffr63.50; and a coffee flavored cake with coffee cream and chocolate icing, 500g, Ffr67.

Under its own label, Picard sells cake items ranging from the ubiquitous tarte tatin to an old fashioned apple pie, chocolate cakes, lemon meringue pie and a bittersweet chocolate fondant. Also offered is the Brossard brand Tatin which, in a curious role reversal, is less pricey per kilo than Picard's own label tatin.

The freezer center does not neglect foreign recipe specialties, such as apple strudel, which it explains to consumers is Austrian (300g, Ffr13.30). Also available are regional specialties such as an apple-based, Armagnac-flavored pastry from the Gers (a region in the southwest of France (400g, Ffr52.70) and a Kouign Amann, a Breton apple-based pastry. Lenotre is represented in Picard's freezer cases with six pricey items from the master pastry chef's recipes for industrial baker Brossard.

Brossard stands behind its own brand with lemon, raspberry and blueberry pies as well as tarte tatin. Petit Trianon is also represented with a raspberry macaroon, a chestnut fondant and a lemon cake. Picard's quick frozen pastry range is broad enough to satisfy almost any sweet tooth. In bread, it has six items: two ready-to-cook breads, 250g bag, Ffr3.80; four heat and serve rolls, Ffr240g, Ffr9.50; four heat and serve rye rolls with walnuts, 240g, Ffr9.50; four heat-and-serve wholemeal or country or salt-free rolls, each 200g and Ffr5.50 All of these basics are marketed under own label.

Picard's frozen dough range covers frozen pancake pie and pizza varieties. Its heat-and-serve viennoiserie listings include an assortment of miniatures: croissants, pain au chocolat and raspberry-filled donuts. The presence of Sara Lee's walnut ring, 390g for Ffr25.40, is indicative of the scope of Picard's offer. Sara Lee was conspicuously absent from French hyper and supermarket freezers. Picard also sells frozen classic French pastries, known here as individual portions, such as Paris-Brest and eclairs.

For those who get fat just thinking about all this, there is Weight Watchers lemon meringue, two to a box, 160g, Ffr22. Weight Watchers France is an interesting player because it is present solely in the quick frozen segment. Products, including desserts, are adapted to suit French tastes. The niche products have, obviously, far fewer calories than a Theron or Petit Trionon cake.

Brigitte Daniel, Weight Watchers Foods France product development manager, said the line, which does use sugar, is the fruit of original research by a team of French doctors and research scientists in Montpellier. "They have neither preservatives nor artificial coloring and are made with 100% natural ingredients," she said.

Frozen nibbles (flaky pastry canapes, for example) are an interesting and as yet under exploited segment. Brossard and Iglo are, of course, present in this field. Sogenale markets its frozen canapes under the Pikiche brand. While expansion in the miniature frozen market from 1989-91 was 66%, the growth in value of Pikiche miniature frozens during that time was 130%. In 1992, some 1,750 tons were sold in France.

According to a Pikiche spokesman, the domestic miniature frozen products market owes its rate of expansion to creativity and flexibility. The company's policy is to anticipate demand and changes in eating habits, thus developing products year `round to cash in on "snacking" opportunities. Its line of what is called miniature frozen treats is divided into four segments: festive treats, miniature flaky pastries, miniature croustades and miniature cocktail sweets.

Festive treats, surprise bread, a box of 18 mini blinis (with three kinds of sauce) and a box of 20 mini canapes merely have to be thawed before eating. The ready-to-heat miniature croustades cover conventional cocktail snacks in boxes of 12, 18 or 24.

Sky's the Limit for CIBUS:

800+ Equipment Exhibits

More than 800 food processing equipment manufacturers are turning out for CIBUS Tecnologie, set for Oct. 24-28 at Panna, Italy.

CIBUS Tecnologie combines the 41st Tecnoconserve, 13th Milc and second Tecnomeat expositions, and adds the first Tecnocereali and Ingredients exhibitions. Trade missions are expected from Algeria, Argentina, Cyprus, South Korea, the Confederation of Independent States, Egypt, the Philippines, Japan, India, Indonesia, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Portugal, the USA, South Africa, Thailand, Tunisia and Turkey.

A number of seminars are on tap, including one on HACCP (Hazard Analysis, Critical Control Points). For more information, contact Fiere di Parma, Via F. Rizzi 67/A, 43031 Baganzola, Parma, Italy; telephone [phone], fax [phone].

TCBY Enters Portugal Market

Local development rights in Portugal have been licensed to Companhia de Gelados by TCBY International, the USA-based multi-national frozen yogurt operation.

The agreement calls for the opening of 10 TCBY outlets in Portugal over the next five years, in addition to wholesale distribution of TCBY products to supermarkets and other food stores. It is the company's first venture into the European market.