For over 30 years, Gourmand is the specialist in frozen pastry products. From their industrial production facility in Mouscron (Belgium), Gourmand delivers sweet and savoury products to their customers (artisan bakers, retailers, catering and hospitality businesses). Their products are sold in more than 50 countries.
As our project leader, Integrated Bakery has realised the expansion of our industrial bakery (frozen pastry products). They acted as contact for all suppliers and took on the complete coordination of the project. Integrated Bakery was the necessary link in the multidisciplinary approach, from the building of the bakery until the operational production.
Gourmand is a fast growing company and had to expand because of their growth. The expansion lead to multiple complex technological issues to be solved. In addition, Gourmand had a relatively new and unexperienced staff who could not handle the extensive project. Furthermore, the responsible person, Piet Willems, did not have the time to immerse himself full-time in the technical issues. This has been the reason for Gourmand to involve Integrated Bakery in all the technical aspects of the project.
In 2012 they started the development of the expansion of the production capacity of the croissants. For this, they have expanded the production facility and added a new industrial production line. In addition, they have created extra floor space to be able to place a new line in the future.
Integrated Bakery was involved in the entire process from planning until realisation and commissioning of the bakery. This included both the selection and supervision of the engineering, as well as the bakery technics, the technological installations and training of the technical staff.
A new production line for croissants with the highest capacity of Europe was installed. For the input on the line, a continuous mixer was chosen, resulting in a better and more constant quality of dough. This raised the overall quality of their products.
