bake - November/December 2022 - 41

breads
KEY ACQUISITION
Grupo Bimbo SAB de CV has acquired St. Pierre Group, a United
Kingdom-based baker of premium brioche-style products with
a growing presence in the United States. The transaction was
disclosed in Bimbo's third-quarter financial results report.
According to a spokesperson for St Pierre Group, the company
was bought in its entirety and will continue to operate independently.
St.
Pierre's products include brioche buns, brioche bagels and
brioche sub rolls. Specialty products include chocolate chip brioche
loaf, croissants, chocolate and hazelnut rolled crepe, brioche
waffles and brioche cinnamon twist.
Grupo Bimbo has acquired numerous specialty baking businesses
in recent years operating in the United States. In January
2020, Bimbo purchased the Lender's Bagels business from
Conagra Brands, Inc. In July 2021, the company acquired Emmy's
Organics, a maker of ultra-premium organic cookies.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, and top Bimbo
executives shared little further information about the company
or the acquisition in an Oct. 27 conference call with investment
analysts.
St. Pierre Group was established in 1986 as Carrs Foods, a producer
of private label baked foods that also sold products under
the St. Pierre brand. For a time beginning in 1992, Carrs became
a subsidiary of Harry's, a family-owned baking business in
France. The company's current chairman Jeremy Gilboy joined
Carrs Foods in 1997 as finance and operations manager. Seven
years later Paul Baker joined the company as technical director.
Gilboy and Baker acquired the business in 2004 in a management
buyout and transformed the company from a supplier of
private label cakes into a baker of premium branded products.
The company began exporting its products from the United
Kingdom in 2011, first to Australia. It exited that market three
years later, but Baker started to explore opportunities in the
United States beginning in 2012. The company launched in the
US market in 2014, offering 10 products in the Midwest. Carrs
expanded up and down the East Coast in 2016 and became a
national brand in 2017.
According to the St. Pierre Groupe, Carrs enjoyed rapid
growth during this period, with annual sales climbing to £20 million
in 2012 to £69 million in 2018. In 2020, the company became
the largest brioche brand in the United States. A year later, the
company changed its business name to St. Pierre Groupe and
received an £8 million capital investment from Lloyds Bank Business
Growth Fund (BGF). The company's sales topped £100 million
globally in 2021, St. Pierre said.
The company's US sales at retail nearly quadrupled between
2018 and 2021 to $130 million from $34 million. It opened its first
US office in 2021 in Cincinnati.
In a November 2021 exclusive interview with Bake magazine,
Baker outlined key strategies they are undertaking to build an
even stronger business.
" Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the St Pierre brand
is going from strength-to-strength. We have recently opened
our first US office, in Cincinnati and we are agreeing new distribution
with retailers across America on our range of products.
The brand value surpasses $100mn and US sales are up 10 percent
year on year - no mean feat given the uplift in sales caused
by Covid-19 in 2020 left many suppliers struggling to maintain
heady sales levels, " he said.
" One of the impacts of the pandemic was to speed up the
digitalization of our industry. Especially for St Pierre, because
we are America's number one brioche brand, but we were operating
from Manchester, UK and unable to travel for almost two
years. Necessity is the mother of all invention, and we developed
a number of new technologies to ensure that we sustained the
growth of our brand and its presence in the US market.
" Throughout 2021, we were steadily building a team on the
ground in America. David Wagstaff, our VP in North America
now has a team of 10 working across the United States. Adapting
technology at every level of our business made that possible. "
bakemag.com | NOV-DEC 2022 > 41
ST. PIERRE GROUP
http://www.bakemag.com
bake - November/December 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of bake - November/December 2022
