Between Orne and Calvados, this mill is modernizing and perpetuating artisanal know-how

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In Saint-Pierre-du-Regard (Orne), the Deslandes flour mill has automated storage area by a new 25 kg bagging line and a palletizing robot. “We are surrounded by standards and weight control for employees,” explains Gérard Guicheteau. “We were raised in it. The constraints are changing,” adds Amélie Garnier.

A complete visit to the company was held, in the presence of Catherine Meunier regional advisor and Stéphane Terrier departmental advisor.

Amélie Garnier, administrative director, and Floriane Leboeuf, production and quality manager, two sisters and daughters, took over the businesstwo years ago, after the retirement of Gérard Guicheteau, president of the flour mill.

Everything is automated

“Previously we bagged 4 tonnes per hour with handling, now we bag 6 tonnes per hour without handling. The checkweigher checks the weight of the bags,” explains Gérard Guicheteau.

So that wheat becomes flour (40 different kinds of flour in total), several steps are necessary. The wheat is cleaned, then moistened and left to rest for 24 hours before being crushed. The flour then goes into a mixer before being sent to the storage building for shipment. The flour is either bagged in 25 kg bags or stored in bulk.

“10 years ago: 50% were in bags and today 70% of flour delivered is bagged», declares Floriane Leboeuf.

Normandy as its main territory

Arriving in 1976, Gérard Guicheteau joined the Deslandes family in 1978 in this company founded in 1890. The flour mill produces nine white flours and between twenty and twenty-five flours, which are mixed with ingredients to make different products for specialty breads.

The flour mill receives 10,000 tonnes of wheat each year .

8,112 tonnes of flour per year are sold mainly in Normandy and a little on the outskirts of Mayenne and the north of the island and Vilaine. The Deslandes flour mill takes care of its own deliveries mainly to artisan bakers.

The company counts sixteen employees (four delivery drivers, four salespeople throughout Normandy, four people at the mill for production and handling and four people in the offices).

An investment of €320,000

“The Regional Agricultural Policy system is a system which makes it possible to transform agricultural materials for strengthen competitiveness businesses…”, specifies Catherine Meunier, regional advisor.

An investment of €275,000 for the new bagging line and the robot, plus the installation and fitting out of the premises (electricity, etc.), for a total of €320,000 subsidized by the region to the tune of 32 853,60 € et 49 280,40 € of EAFRD Funds (European Agricultural Fund for Development in Rural Areas).

“We are very happy to accompany you…”, says Catherine Meunier. “Everything went well, we were supported by the CCI Ouest Normandie. It is a good helping hand for the arrangement of the storage area,” concludes Amélie Garnier, thanking Catherine Meunier.

Other projects are on the horizon, such as expansion of the building for storageand the installation of a new turbine.

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