Table Talk: Paul Baker

A third-generation baker and co-founder of UK-based bakery company, St Pierre Groupe, Paul Baker is a trained Master Baker from Exeter College and is President of the Student Guild of Bakers. Along with St Pierre Groupe’s co-founder, Jeremy Gilboy, Paul leads a portfolio of bakery brands that include St Pierre, Paul Hollywood and Baker Street. Today, St Pierre is one of the fastest growing bakery brands in the United States and St Pierre Groupe was named the 2019 Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery honoree for Bakery of the Year. 

A standout in a competitive market with 212 percent increased sales in the past five years, I spoke to Paul about how he led St Pierre Groupe to grow globally and how he’s incorporating branding and ecommerce strategy to make that happen. 

First, let’s talk about your surname, Baker. Was there ever any doubt that you’d eventually own and manage a bakery products company?

 Not only is my name Baker, but both my father and grandfather were also bakers, so you could say I was destined to be in this business. From a young age, I was exposed to the ins and outs running a bakery. I remember working in my father’s Culm Vale Bakery, learning to jam doughnuts and place the crosses on hot cross buns. When I got older, I decided to train at Exeter College to be a Master Baker and had the opportunity to work alongside Michelin-starred chefs. I also earned a degree in Food Science, specializing in bakery.

 Now let’s talk St Pierre! What was your journey to founding St Pierre Groupe?

 It’s been quite the journey! For starters, I wouldn’t be where I am today without my business partner, Jeremy Gilboy. We were both working at Carrs Foods—the predecessor to St Pierre Groupe—when in 2004, the chance to buy the company came up and we grabbed it. It was the opportunity of a lifetime.

 Jeremy Gilboy, Peter Lawson (now retired) and I decided to buy out Carrs Foods, which at the time focused primarily on private label importing, with annual sales of around $15 million and a staff of 15 people. To have the opportunity to acquire a business that was profitable and had a team of people who knew how to run the business—it was a no-brainer. This is what my whole career had been about, and here was my chance to lead this business with Jeremy. The world was our oyster. All we had to do was build it.

We didn’t know the first thing about management buyouts, so there was a lot of learning that came with the process. The first three years were good. Once we were independent, we could source and develop products and brands ourselves. We started to launch more interesting products, such as waffles, crêpes and brioche, then started getting into bread, which is a huge market.

 When the market crashed in 2008, we survived and learned some valuable business lessons as a result. We’ve since grown the company to include the St Pierre and the Baker Street brands, and later acquired the license to sell the Paul Hollywood range.

We were determined to build a presence for St Pierre in the US market, so in 2012, I rented a blood-red V8 muscle car, loaded up the back seat with St Pierre products and drove across the States, dropping in on unsuspecting retailers, some of which remain very loyal customers to this very day.

America has been a game-changer for us, but we’ve only just scratched the surface with St Pierre. We have a lot of big plans to grow the business in the US.

We love your brands. But we’re wondering, how do you differentiate your brands in a crowded market? What appeals to consumers most about your brands, which include St Pierre Bakery, Baker Street and Paul Hollywood?

In the US, we currently only sell St Pierre. When we came to the US, we noticed the demand for authentic, European bakery products was growing and we needed to set ourselves apart, so we decided to bring the Parisian culture to life here in the states.

For the International Dairy Deli Bakery trade show, we developed a booth that looks like a Parisian café. Every year it evolves a bit more and has become quite impressive and memorable. When you see it, you make that connection to European café culture.

In store, our St Pierre packaging is bright orange (a common color found throughout Paris) with iconic Parisian landmarks to help set it apart on shelf. We also have special merchandising racks designed to look like the Eiffel Tower.

All three brands – St Pierre, Baker Street and Paul Hollywood – are sold in the UK and each feature different offerings that appeal to different consumers in different markets, so we’re never competing against ourselves.

Baker Street are your everyday bakery products (plain white sliced loaves, burger buns, hot dog rolls, etc.) while Paul Hollywood is a licensed brand of ready-to-bake breads.

 St Pierre Groupe, previously Carrs Foods, rebranded less than a year ago. What was the strategy behind this pivot and what were the effects?

As the brand was evolving, we realized we needed a stronger identity. There was confusion, especially in the UK, with the name Carrs. People thought crackers. And we wanted people to think brioche. Since St Pierre is our core brand, we decided to rebrand as St Pierre Groupe. It’s had a great response so far.

St Pierre Groupe has over 30 years of experience in the unique perishable food category. Notoriously challenging to sell online, what steps are you taking to build out an ecommerce strategy?

We understand ecommerce is essential to stay competitive in this market. However, it can be challenging with perishable food. All of our bakery products are stored frozen until ready to hit shelves. We are in the midst of working this out and plan to launch on ecommerce in the coming year.

We are already on UK ecommerce retailers, Ocado and Amazon, and have a US Amazon launch coming soon.

What changes have you witnessed in the perishable foods category within grocery ecommerce? Why are consumers more willing now than ever to purchase perishable foods online and have them delivered? How will that continue to change?

Today’s consumers are leading incredibly busy lives and don’t always have time to go food shopping. This has caused a surge in online shopping – even for perishable groceries. Consumers want the convenience of shopping online, which has led manufacturers and retailers to identify and develop new ways of storing and delivering perishable goods. This will only evolve, as the demand continues to increase.  

Why are US consumers so interested in your European-style products? How does a UK-based company, like St Pierre Groupe, successfully grow to have 60% of its distribution in the US?

Globalization and the multicultural makeup of today’s consumers has led to a booming demand for product diversity and authenticity. Europe has a degree of intrigue and romance linked to it, and European products are known for their high quality. I think we’ve done a good job of bringing these qualities to the US, elevating the everyday experience for consumers, providing not just brioche, but delicious, high-quality brioche to elevate great hamburgers and hot dogs, making the overall experience far more enjoyable.

The rising popularity of brioche in US restaurants has also helped drive interest in St Pierre products at retail. With more than 250 percent menu growth over the last 10 years, brioche now appears on over 15 percent of menus, featured mostly as burger buns, as well as in French toast, breakfast sandwiches and desserts. This helps familiarize consumers with brioche and inspires them to use it in their own kitchen.

How are St Pierre Groupe’s business strategies shifting due to the coronavirus outbreak, if at all?

St Pierre Groupe is one of an army of food businesses working hard to keep our bakery products flowing around the world. We were quick to adopt UK government guidelines and 90% of our team moved to working from home two weeks ahead of the lockdown. Social distancing and sanitizing procedures were implemented for the operational team who had to remain working from the office (5 team members of 45) and our IT infrastructure mobilized to ensure good communications were maintained. Most importantly, we agreed on how to check in with all team members as a matter of routine.

So how has our business strategy changed due to this pandemic?

Firstly, our focus on our people hasn’t changed but evolved. We have a strong, capable and caring team at St Pierre and world class partners in multiple countries (both in our customer base and manufacturing base). Our first priority was to ensure the safety and well-being of our teams and partners – not only those continuing to operate from our office, in Manchester, but also those isolated at home. Harnessing the benefits of our recently upgraded IT infrastructure helped us to move quickly and efficiently to remote working, which has never been more crucial.

Operationally, we have two drivers – supply and demand. The inevitable onslaught of mass panic buying and subsequent fulfilment of unprecedented demand was our initial challenge. As days passed, our retail customers streamlined their product range down to essential products – equally, on our side, supply became pressurized and replenishment stretched. Stock replenishment is still reduced, in tandem with the availability of workers due to lockdowns, social distancing in bakeries and no-shows of line operatives due to anxiety.

Our strategy has been focused on streamlining operations, ensuring effective daily updates with both customers and manufacturers on the future supply of labor. We’ve begun to ration our stock so that we can keep most of our customers fulfilled and with diminishing supply, this is a daily evaluation.

From the brand perspective, we’re investing on our social media channels at unprecedented levels. More importantly, we’re adjusting our messaging to be mindful and considerate of our audience’s situation. Social media has become our marketing channel in the short- to medium-term so we’re redirecting our marketing budgets to social and digital.

Finally, we’re working out how to support the communities we serve through food bank donations. We’ve always supported food banks but the current need is more acute and we’re stepping up our support as a result.

It’s difficult to know what will come out of this situation long term but our strategy largely remains the same – look after our team (whatever the circumstances), delight our customers and engage consumers with the vibrant, great quality bakery brands that they love.

Follow Paul Baker on LinkedIn and St Pierre Groupe on Twitter and LinkedIn.