Catherin Ryall, press officer of Business France UK – the French Trade Commission, told BakeryandSnacks there has, surprisingly, been a rise in French companies wanting to export to the UK since the Brexit vote.
“Article 50 hasn’t been triggered, so nothing has changed as yet, but obviously it will happen,” she said.
“However, there’s been no loss of interest from French companies wanting to do business in the UK, which bodes well for the future for both sides,” she said.
Ramping up UK business
Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients (LCI) is one such French company reinforcing its footprint in the UK.
The French ingredient developer set up an office in Bristol two years ago, in response to the increase of sales it was generating from the area. Today, the UK is one of the company’s biggest markets.
“It is a huge market for us, especially in the pre-packed bread category,” Pauline Arramy, marketing executive of LCI told this site.
“It is a very challenging sector, because bread has been affected by a bad health image, but that is where we can really help manufacturers.”
The company has recently revamped its range of speciality ingredients for the bakery industry, remarketing it under the umbrella of Bakery by Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients.
Arramy explained that LCI is particularly known for its improvers for different types of breads, pastries, brioches and pizza dough, but perhaps a little less so for its range of functional flours, taste and colour ingredients, mixes and premixes, and nutritional ingredients, such as Nutricorn.
A corn germ toasted via a specific clean label hydrothermic process, Nutricorn can replace nuts in numerous bakery applications, giving manufacturers an avenue to make "nut-free" claims.
Limagrain is the second largest industrial baker and third largest industrial pâtissier maker in France, as well as the fourth largest seed company worldwide.