Mariage européen dans la boulangerie

Tarascon (Bouches-du-Rhône, France), Gênes (Italie), le 26 juin 2007

BCS et LANTERNA s’associent pour donner un nouveau développement à Boulangerie de l’Europe (Reims, France)
Le groupe BCS (Tarascon, France), leader français dans la fabrication industrielle de boulangerie (selon un procédé très innovant qu’elle a développé, le Process 124) et de viennoiserie “prêtes à cuire” surgelées s'associe avec Lanterna Alimentari Genova S.p.A., leader italien dans la production et la distribution de Focaccia, pain et spécialités, dans l’entreprise rémoise Boulangerie de l’Europe.

Quelques chiffres :
• BCS : 600 personnes, 90 millions d’euros de chiffre d’affaires
• Lanterna Alimentari Genova S.p.A : 80 personnes, 30 millions d’euros de chiffre d’affaires
• Boulangerie de l'Europe : 105 personnes, 12 millions d’euros de chiffre d’affaires

Contacts presse BCS
Delphine Rousseau (delphinerousseau@wanadoo.fr, Portable 33 6 08 93 13 26)
Contacts presse LANTERNA
Maria-Letizia Mele (mlmele@lanternagenova.com)

Téléchargez notre communiqué de presse au format PDF (264 Ko)

www.groupebcs.com
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ZAC du Roubian, B.P. 109, 13153 Tarascon Cedex, France
Tel. 33 4 90 91 51 70, Fax 33 4 90 91 51 79

Press release

We are not industrial bakers, but rather bakers who work on an industrial scale. We are professionals with a passion for our trade. It is true we produce in large quantities. It is also true we use new technologies. However, as we have grown in size, we have never lost sight of our desire for continued product quality. We love what we do and have a need to create. We respect our customers and like to surprise them pleasantly, too. Our products speak for us. We produce bread (many different sorts, both old-fashioned and modern, and in a variety of sizes), a large range of tasty Viennese pastries, and pastry basics (dough in the form of sheets, discs, packs made from puff, shortcrust, and sweet pastry…).

Origin
Market conditions have changed considerably over the past ten years. Technological progress, new customer expectations, and a frantic attempt to produce in quantity at the lowest price triggered a veritable explosion in market supply. The number of product/technology pairs increased ("home" baked, industrially baked, deep-frozen ready-to-bake, deep-frozen pre-baked, etc.). Fifteen years of research and development enabled us to open up another course of action. It was a matter of respecting age-old traditions, taking the time to do things right, fighting for a model of quality, and integrating the most modern technology. Those were the foundations of Process 124. That was back in 1988. Since then, the group has grown considerably. New teams in Tarascon, Saint-Paul-en-Jarez, Terville and La Seyne-sur-mer have joined the founders, Jean-Luc Couturier and Bernard Leleu.

The Ready-to-Bake Revolution
Process 124 includes the following basics, but goes well beyond them: strict criteria in selection of raw materials, highly-skilled personnel at all levels, precise definition of the equipment and facilities, the seamless integration of data-processing, quality control at each step of production, as well as the slow and gradual nature of certain phases, i.e., requirements which will never be changed.

More specifically, however, Process 124 is the outcome of knowledge obtained through advanced research into the physical/chemical properties involved in the transformation of dough when baked, carried out with the assistance of state-of-the-art data processing systems. One of the truly crucial moments in baking occurs during coagulation, i.e., when the proteins in the gluten are physically transformed and become a solid mass. Most research has been aimed at determining the exact conditions of the "balance point" between CO2 production and the beginning of the Maillard reaction according to the structure of the dough, its composition, and the way in which it was prepared. A sudden temperature rise leads to gluten coagulation while the fermentation cycle is stopped, without triggering the beginning of the baking. At this precise moment, after having been subjected to a sort of thermal shock, the bread has attained its optimum size. Slowly cooled, then frozen, it is now ready for the final phase: it need only be baked at the point of sale. The Process is truly revolutionary. It provides bread which is so very different from frozen pre-baked goods which dry out quickly, lose their crust easily, and which never attain their original taste.

We benefited from the same advanced technology within the framework of our Viennese pastry branch. Viennese pastry is made from puff pastry containing yeast. The excellence of result, measured in terms of "buttery taste", lightness and crispiness, comes from the quality of the puff pastry (obtained by forming multiple coats of butter and pastry and observing rest periods) and the fermentation (obtained by the yeast). In addition to ready-to-prove Viennese products (deep-frozen after shaping), a technique which we mastered in 1990, our specificity lies in having perfected a range of ready-to-bake Viennese pastries. These products are shaped, then partially cooked. Our strong point is having perfected this step of fermentation: the product is proved enough to obtain, after baking, a shape and a volume comparable to high quality Viennese products. The prove, however, is not complete, which eliminates the main drawbacks of pre-proven Viennese pastry on the market. Following this crucial step in fermentation, the products are deep-frozen, then browned. This provides Viennese pastry which is very different from frozen pre-baked products which are sensitive to thermal shocks and dry out quickly once they are baked.

With ready-to-bake products, you do not need to prove them for hours and you do not need a proof cabinet. In fact, you do not need any specific equipment: just an oven.

The result? High quality bread and Viennese pastry, ready-to-bake anytime of the day, whenever you need them. Guaranteed to be fresh!

Our customers are pioneers who quickly understood the many advantages that our products offer. We deal only with professionals present in the secondary segments of the market, in particular mass retailing and restaurants, in France and abroad.

Today and Tomorrow


Today the BCS Group represents 6 production sites in France and 500 colleagues who all work in ISO 9002 certified businesses and share an obsession for food safety (HACCP standard). Business opportunities are enormous and the market is just waiting to be conquered…

Taste our products, then you will understand.

Photo gallery

Here you will see several royalty-free photos which illustrate the life of our Group, for use by the press or other news media . Feel free to contact us for high definition digital versions of these photos.

Please contact: contactinfo@groupebcs.com

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