The Belgian bakery and coffee chain, which operates 260 outlets worldwide, including 15 in the UK, is seeking to reach a wider audience through UK supermarkets, following in the footsteps of café brands including Costa Coffee, Pret A Manger and LEON
Le Pain Quotidien operates more than 260 locations worldwide, with company-operated stores in Belgium, France, the UK and the US | Photo credit: Le Pain Quotidien
Le Pain Quotidien has signed a retail agreement to place branded products on UK supermarket shelves.
The agreement will see the Belgian bakery and coffee chain, which operates 260 outlets worldwide, including 15 in the UK, partner with distributor Taste Shakers which will manage its grocery business and take responsibility for further retail growth.
Taste Shakers, which specialises in bringing hospitality brands to supermarkets, currently works with the UK’s largest supermarket chains, including Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrisons and Waitrose.
“We’ve already developed a loyal following in our UK bakery-restaurants. Now we feel the time is right to capitalise on this, bringing our products to a wider audience, and we’re delighted to be taking this step with Taste Shakers,” said Frederic Lluch, Managing Director UK, Le Pain Quotidien.
Launching branded retail products proved popular with café chains seeking to diversify sales in the face of reduced ins-store footfall during the Covid-19 pandemic, with partnerships continuing to see success as trading restrictions have eased.
In May 2020, Costa Coffee launched a new range of retail coffee products for the at-home market across the UK and Europe, with Pret A Manger launching partnerships with supermarket chain Waitrose and e-commerce giant Amazon in November 2020 to sell retail packaged coffee in the UK,
In May 2021, healthy fast food and coffee chain LEON followed its distribution of branded household ingredients in UK supermarket stores by selling branded retail coffee at 493 Sainsbury’s supermarkets in the UK.
Sainsbury’s has since announced a major revamp of its eat-in, takeaway and home delivery food and beverage offer this year, which includes a partnership with Caffè Carluccio’s to open in-store cafés and sell branded packaged food.
Le Pain Quotidien operates more than 260 locations worldwide, with company-operated stores in Belgium, France, the UK and the US, and franchised stores in Mexico, Spain, UAE and Japan.
In May 2020, the company’s US business filed for bankruptcy, with New York-based Aurify Brands providing a funding package to continue operations in the country, before acquiring all US units for $3m.