LESAFFRE: THE SECRET OF PERFECT BREAD

Everyone who has tried to bake bread at home knows the anxiety, anticipation and delight – or disappointment, that inevitably accompany the process of finding the perfect recipe, mixing the ingredients, kneading the dough, waiting for it to rise and then baking it. Professional bakers, bakeries and mass production facilities, however, cannot allow themselves the luxury of experimenting with bread without being confident in the quality of the final result. The customers are more and more demanding, and increasingly aware of the quality and taste of the good bread.

Lesaffre, as one of the global producers of yeast, sourdough, starters and baking ingredients, offers the solution. Fifty years ago, the French company redefined the art of professional bread making by opening its first BAKING CENTER ^TM. It revolutionised the work of professionals and gradually grew into a global network. Bulgaria got its first BAKING CENTER ^TM in 2021 and since then this innovative space quickly started changing the local industry in more than one way. We talked to Veneta Pissarska, Managing Director of Lesaffre Bulgaria, to learn how.

A year and a half ago Lesaffre opened its first BAKING CENTERTM in Bulgaria. In synopsis, what did it achieve so far?

Hand on heart, I can say that this is Lesaffre's best investment in Bulgaria so far. Our BAKING CENTER ^TM functions as a space for development of new recipes, product testing, sharing of experience between professionals and solving problems that our clients face on a daily basis.

Our colleagues, who are specialists in breadmaking technology, belong to the international network of Lesaffre's BAKING CENTER ^TM that already includes 50 such spaces all over the world. We feel extremely happy to be part of this community of global professionals and, on the other hand, are proud that we can contribute with our own experience.

With the exception of professional tasks at the highest level of importance and complexity, on a daily basis we manage to find new ways to use our BAKING CENTER ^TM. Currently, it is quite often used as a territory of spontaneous or planned team building meetings for our small team. Recently, we also started to officially offer this service to our partners and clients. For example, just before Easter we organised the largest event of this type so far, for our colleagues from the Bulgarian Industrial Association. A team of 20 managers and employees in the organisation joined the kneading of traditional kozunak. The result was not only extremely delicious baked goods, but also many positive emotions. Participants went home with certificates for non-professional bakers, tasty kozunak they made themselves, additional knowledge and unforgettable memories.

There are 50 such centres around the world. Why are they important for both Lesaffre and the baking industry?

The BAKING CENTER ^TM spaces are important because they are laboratories for research and analysis, a prerequisite for innovation in the field of bread-making processes and technologies. These centers are designed to improve the quality of our services by solving key problems that bread-making industry experiences, such as reducing the costs and improvement of products' quality.

One of our latest projects in Sofia BAKING CENTER ^TM is BAKING CENTER Academy that offers training for professionals. This initiative is the natural continuation to a couple of our main focuses recently – local CSR policy, education of trained and engaged employees for the industry, and expanding our range in the B2B sector.

We are working on the BAKING CENTER Аcademy project with incredible passion and ambition to support the industry that we are engaged in on a daily basis, because we know the severe lack of workforce it is facing. We believe we have the required knowledge and resources to help it overcome this challenge. We hope we can bring back the lost prestige of the art of baking and we want to turn the spotlight on for the people who produce the bread that we all need!

Sofia, 7 Iskarsko Shose St, Trade Center Europe, Building 6, office 1

+359 (0)2 873 14 39

office@lesaffre.bg

lesaffre.bg