Digital transformation has been key to the success and growth of international bakery business St Pierre Groupe throughout the pandemic and in-housing is a large part of its immediate future, its co-founder has confirmed.
Paul Baker joined what would become St Pierre Groupe, then Carrs Foods, in 2002 and two years later led an MBO with Jeremy Gilboy to take the company over, before beginning to transform it.
Around seven years ago, the company made its expansion to the US, and quickly became America’s leading brand of brioche.
It completed its rebrand in 2019 and set sights on doubling its turnover to £150 million by 2022.
Now employing 81, St Pierre Groupe encompasses three brands: St Pierre, Baker Street and the Paul Hollywood line of products, and is primarily run from its main base in Didsbury, Manchester – with 10 staff working in Cincinnati, USA.
Since COVID hit, Baker told Prolific North, “we’ve not only increased our marketing team in the past 18 months, we’ve actually increased our senior management team as well,” to introduce individuals like David Wagstaff as US MD and Jen Danby as Marketing Director, both joining from the Happy Egg Co. Newly appointed CEO, David Milner, was previously CEO at both Tyrrell’s and Lily’s Kitchen.
“Each department – supply chain, marketing, quality – we’ve upgraded.”
This, he said, is down to its commitment to finding the right people for the business and for finding the correct digital solutions, as well as riding a wave of consumers wanting to “max out” on treating themselves.
