La Mère Poulard forced to buy her Norman butter… in the Netherlands

“We do big efforts on an environmental level and besides that, our butter local must browse 2 000 km before arriving at our house. » Sébastien Pautrel, general director of the biscuit factory La Mère Poulardis exasperated. While the Maen Roch company, near Fougères (Ille-et-Vilaine), supplies in France for everyone else ingredientshe is unable to buy the butter direct from dairies French.

70 to 75 tonnes per month

La Mère Poulard produces 3,500 tonnes of biscuits per year, for which she needs a large quantity of butter. “Every month we consume it 70 to 75 tons on average,” explains Sébastien Pautrel.

“There are more ten yearswe sourced our supplies from Fléchard, in Normandiebut subsequently it became difficile to get French butter all year round and very difficult to buy in direct. For example, when we asked Lactalis to provide us with French butter, they were unable to to guarantee delivery all year round within quantities necessary. It's the same thing with Savencia in Condé-sur-Vire. »

So like the immense majority of the sector agri-foodthe biscuit factory turned to a trader (trader). Based in The Netherlandshe plays the role of intermediary between the beurreries and consumers, thanks to its ability to freeze in large quantities, to absorb the variations production and prices. “We receive the butter thawed. For example, the one delivered to us in December had been produced in avril », testifies Sébastien Pautrel.

“Mother Poulard is France!” »

But this operation, in addition to making browse unnecessarily hundreds of kilometers to the raw material, also involves a issue in size. “I can't buy 100% French butter. About one tiers is European,” laments the director.

The situation only has disadvantagessince the prix per ton varies very little between the two origins. Above all, this foreign butter makes attached in a 100% French ingredient list. ” THE two thirds time, the cookies are 100% Frenchbut I can't even put it forward because of these deliveries of European butter. »

So the pill has difficulty passing for Sébastien Pautrel. “I came from the world agricole and it is important to me to sustain because today, we are killing French agriculture,” he says. “And then, Mère Poulard is a brand trust for the consumer. Paul Bocuse had also written this sentence in 1979: Mother Poulard is France! »

Faced with this, the director did not drop arms and continues to canvass dairies. ” THE volume that we consume, it is both a lot and not so huge, we remain an SME,” he emphasizes.

“It’s all the more annoying that we have just been forced to pay 6 000 euros to carry out a carbon diagnosis and besides that, we let's buy butter which is produced near us, but which transit by the Netherlands. »

Environmental Efforts

Mother Poulard thus leads important efforts environmental, particularly in reducing the size of the cardboard used to make the boxes. “They are going perdre 5 mm thickness from July 2025, which corresponds to the vide which exists at the moment. It may seem petitbut it allows in particular to put 14 cases per packaging box, against 12 so far,” notes Sébastien Pautrel. “Two cases therefore travel for free and it reduces the consumption overall cardboard. »

In terms of projects, works expansion plans are also about to begin. “Between May 2025 and February 2026, we will build 450 m² of offices and meeting rooms, then in 2026, we will build 2 000 m² additional to extend the production area which today covers 3,000 m²out of the 5,000 on the site. »

As for the issue butter, “today I have two tracks », slips the director, who hopes to find a solutionto this difficult situation.

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