in Ardin, the “French butter shortbread” conquers the United States

Every morning at 3:50 a.m., the twenty-meter-long oven turns on automatically. The first batch of crushed products is ready to be bagged at 7 a.m. Until 9 p.m., the oven will operate non-stop. Two tonnes of dough will have been cooked each day. We are in Ardin, in the Maison LPA factory, the new name of P'tits Amoureux. From January 2025, part of this production will leave on the other side of the Atlantic: a contract has been won with a North American chain of stores.

“A bit of our Proust madeleine”

The signal of rebound for the SME acquired in December 2023 by La Fabrique Cookies, based in Gennevilliers (Hauts-de-Seine). The American contract, Élodie Blaizeau, manager of the Ardin site, has been working on it since 2023. “The United States is very fond of French products with added local value. This is the case here: crushed is the biscuit that our grandmothers made. A bit like our Proust madeleine. » On site, the biscuit will be marketed under the name “French butter shortbread”.

The ex-P'tits Amoureux begin a new life. In 2018, when the Vendée cooperative group Cavac came to its aid by becoming a majority shareholder, the company was in bad shape. La Cavac stops the production of fresh desserts, a source of financial losses, and refocuses on its historical know-how, pastry making.

When the boss of La Fabrique Cookies buys it at the end of 2023, he finds a healthier situation. “This company is a gem”says Alexis de Galembert today. All that remains is to modernize the production tool: a new machine to automate “cartoning”, the packaging of biscuit bags, has been purchased. And also to conquer markets.

Alexis de Galembert firmly believes in the future of ground exports. “It’s a product that the Americans came for. And at Sial (1) in Paris, we have established contacts with Japan and Korea. » Another option: out-of-home catering. Company restaurants. Meals served on trains or planes. Connected fridges accessible 24 hours a day that revolutionize the lunch break at work. La Fabrique Cookies can make short work of the Deux-Sèvres SME: it is because it was already working with Disney that a restaurant at Disneyland Paris placed an order for crushed Ardinois whose special shape is inspired by the latest creation from the Pixar animation studio.

“We are returning to our good years and developing projects while keeping the family spirit”underlines Élodie Blaizeau.

Maison LPA, with fifteen employees, had a turnover of around 2 million when it was acquired in 2023. It will reach 2.6 million in 2024. And it is counting on 6.1 million in 2025. La Fabrique Cookies and Maison LPA combined will approach the 12 million euros in turnover this year. Purists can rest assured: the production of galipotes, a favorite homemade cookie in the shape of a ghost, will continue. Ghost alive and well.

(1) International agri-food exhibition held in October.