Lesaffre in Poland and around the world
LESAFFRE W LICZBACH
OVER
170 YEARS
OF EXPERIENCE
52 BAKING CENTERS
80 ZAKŁADÓW PRODUKCYJNYCH
NA CAŁYM ŚWIECIE
Lesaffre Polska S.A.
Lesaffre Polska SA is a leading producer of baking yeast, improvers and additives for the baking and confectionery industry. The company’s headquarters is located in Wołczyn (Opole province), where the factories of both baking yeast, improvers and additives are located. The company has been part of the French Lesaffre Group since 1999.
For over 170 years, Lesaffre has developed a huge portfolio of international brands which are well known in the industry and often set standards in the market.
In Poland, apart from compressed, liquid and dried yeast, two lines of bread improvers Lesaffre has also developed a wide range of baking and confectionery mixes. In response to the market demand, the priority for Lesaffre Polska is the further development of the range of additives and effective cooperation with bakeries and pastry shops.
Brands that set standards
The company’s offer also includes organic fertilizers: The specific character of yeast production makes the manufacture of Vinassa, Potavin, potassium extract and fodder possible. Thanks to these products and agricultural use of post-production waste, Lesaffre Polska implements the environmental protection program in accordance with the principle of sustainable development.
In order to reach clients more effectively, Lesaffre Polska has a team of sales representatives and baking and confectionery technologists who work every day in the field and share their technological expertise.
Marki, które ustalają standardy
Baking Center™
It is important for Lesaffre that cooperation with clients is based on the principle of partnership and dialogue. That is why the Lesaffre Group has set up Baking Centers – places where the company educates thousands of bakers every year for the last 40 years.
Currently, there are over 30 baking centers around the world, including Poland, in Warsaw. This valuable place of cooperation with our clients enables bakers to train in our products and to improve new baking technologies.
Activation of bakery and confectionery industry
Lesaffre’s activity is not only the production and sale of merchandise for the bakery and confectionery industry. For many years, the company has been making efforts to promote bakery profession and show that its practice can be as exciting as sports competitions. Therefore, Lesaffre is the initiator of many international events and baking competitions, such as the Bakery World Cup qualifiers.
LESAFFRE is a specialist in the fermentation processes
At the end of the 19th century, with the advent of scientific progress and thanks to the scientific work of Louis Pasteur, the secret of the action of yeast-microscopic fungi was discovered – the process of fermentation. Louis Lesaffre (1802-1869), contemporary to Pasteur, the founder of the Group, which still exists under his name, quickly gained interest in these new discoveries. Having gained extensive experience in the field of grain fermentation, he founded a factory of fresh yeast in 1853 in Marcq-en-Baroeul, France. He was one of the pioneers of the yeast industry, along with Baron Max de Springer and actively contributed to the development of the baking industry.
Yeast became the basis for further development of the company and diversification of family business. For generations, Lesaffre company has gradually developed to eventually become the main Business Group specializing in biotechnology.
Over 170 years of experience
The Lesaffre Group is currently a key global player in the production of yeast and yeast extract. The Group’s activity is focused on the bakery market, developing a wide range of products related to the fermentation industry: yeast, sourdoughs and derivatives such as bread improvers.
Brands that set standards: Perfekta, l’hirondelle, Saf-Instant, Magimix … for over 170 years Lesaffre has developed a huge portfolio of international brands that are very well known and often set standards in the market. Interested in the most efficient response to the needs and customs of bakers in each country, Lesaffre has also created many local brands with specific characteristics while maintaining traditional high performance, consistency and bacteriological purity.
Lesaffre celebrates its 170th anniversary.
Our company was built on the friendship between Louis Lesaffre and Louis Bonduelle. In 1853, the two men launched their first grain alcohol factory and Dutch gin factory in Marquette-lez-Lille in northern France.
Later they purchased their first mill in Marcq-en-Barœul. This is where Société Industrielle Lesaffre was founded, which gradually became the driving force behind the industrial and commercial boom in the yeast industry.
As with any living thing, our past has only one meaning:
to enable us to build our future.
These 170 years are a milestone during which all of us—employees and partners—can come together to celebrate our achievements to this day and look forward to the years ahead with joy. This future will be based on three pillars: our successes, our commitment to the planet, and, of course, all of us.
Because our mission is to grow so that we can fulfill our purpose:
Work together to better nourish and protect the planet.
Celebrating 170 years of history inevitably means looking back to see how far we have come and measuring the length and breadth of our territory… It means looking at the number not only of our employees, but also our customers, products, projects, countries…
But these are just numbers.
What do they mean for all the generations of managers, employees, technicians, researchers, customers, suppliers, bakers in the artisanal and industrial segments who have followed in their footsteps? Each of them had their own ambitions and projects, their own values and perseverance, striving to build the Lesaffre of the past into the Lesaffre we know today—and the one that lies ahead.
Lesaffre is a living organism. Its past is just as important as its future. What we have achieved so far exists only because of the promises it holds for the years to come. We manage our company in the same way we cultivate our yeast strains: with the same care, the same high standards, the same desire to test everything, create new opportunities, and obtain the best product.
So, 170 years is a milestone on our path to growth. It is an opportunity for us to meet and remember the past so that we can develop and transform our company without turning our backs on our roots. We have grown while remaining true to the vision of our founders and building on that vision, generation after generation, appreciating everything that our company’s history has brought us: the talented people we have recruited, the partnerships we have created, the discoveries we have made, and the markets we have developed.
170 years is an opportunity to take stock with everyone who has been with us on our journey. But above all, it is an opportunity to look to the future, to reflect—and perhaps even imagine—how we will continue to fulfill our mission: We work together to better nourish and protect the planet.