Montreal-based bakery's expansion in the United States
Particularly challenged are bakers of product that consumers perceive as value added but that has become common place, such as crusty French bread and rolls. Officials of Montréal6al, Quebec-based Maison Cousin & Co., a manufacturer of branded European crusty bread and roll Products, pastries and sweet goods, say their challenge goes beyond balancing low cost production with product quality
"Within this environment, we also must provide our customers a broad range of products, creative product ideas and top service," says Marc Gosselin, vice president-sales and marketing. Maison Cousin confronted the issue two years ago when the company faced mounting growing pains.
Introduced par-baked breads
Founded in 1921, the company began as a wholesale deli business. By the mid 1930s, it had evolved into a wholesale fresh bread bakery and in the late 1970s introduced frozen par-baked breads to Quebec Province.
Eight years ago, Maison Cousin debuted a mini bakery concept, designed for small retailers, such as deli, food market and convenience store operators' who lack baking expertise but want to offer fresh product. The package includes a small convection oven and branded bread displays sized to fit a store's needs. Since then, the business has grown to supplying frozen parbaked bread and rolls to about 650 locations across Quebec..
Also in 1998, Maison Cousin was acquired by Multi-Marques, a $350 million (Canadian) manufacturer of commercial bread and sweet goods, which operates 15 plants and 32 distribution centers in Quebec and the maritime provinces. Multi-Marques purchased Maison Cousin in large part to enter the frozen par-baked product market, and Maison Cousin's brand name, well known throughout Quebec, offered instant recognition.
Further, in that year, Multi-Marques acquired Cuisine Nature, a producer of baked muffins and muffin batter, placed it under the Maison Cousin banner and relocated production to Multi-Marques'
Chicoutimi, Quebec, plant. To expand Maison Cousin's line, Multi-Marques tapped production capacity at two other plants. Added items included conventional and loaf cakes, fruit squares, puff pastry shells, eclairs and cream puffss.
Maison Cousin was producing par-baked products, along with frozen dough bread and rolls, from its Montréal6al plant, but it lacked an artisan bread line. And, the bakery already was operating at full capacity. Faced with needs to increase parbaked bread capacity and introduce artisan products, Maison Cousin officials knew that increased production would require a new bakery.
Opened fully automated plant
In fall 1998, they chose to relocate par-baked products to a new bakery and introduce artisan bread production at the Montréal6al plant. That plant also would continue to produce frozen dough items and would introduce eight varieties of artisan bread.
Maison Cousin wasted no time acting on the decision. It chose a 400,000-sq.-ft. vacant site in north suburban Laval, where it invested $13.5 million (Canadian) to construct a 50,000-sq.-ft. plant. The building went up in quick order. Manufacturers began installing bakery production equipment in January 1999, and the bakery went on line in April.
Officials note that the new facility is the most modern, state-of-the-art bakery for par-baked production in North America. Maison Cousin engineers and production officials thoroughly researched the decisions to highly automate par-baked breads and to retain semi-automatic production of artisan breads.
The new bakery, Gosselin adds, will help Maison Cousin boost currently annual sales of nearly $19 million (Canadian) by about 35% this year. Much of the growth should come from increasing the plant's output, given dough production currently is running at about 160,000 kg (350,000 lbs.) per week, or 40% of capacity.
