“We’ve got an excellent geographical location with 15% of our wheat arriving by barge, giving us a short and clean supply route,” he said.
Guilloteau added that “on the sales side, we are at the gates of Paris. The site was not chosen at random.”
Separate storage means that the mill can produce many types of flour, including notably very white T38 flour, helped by the plant’s high-performance sifting equipment, as well as laser sorting. The system is also leakproof.
“That means that we can avoid cross-contamination, which is important for ensuring the quality of specialist flour,” Guilloteau said. “From the time grain comes into the mill until the flour leaves, everything is sealed.”
Moulins Soufflet worked with outside experts on the design of the mill, a process that “worked very well,” Guilloteau said.
Milling equipment from Italy-based Omas was selected, “because it gave us the possibility of saving 30% of the energy consumption by the cylinders in comparison with what we had before,” something that was a priority “in view of the sharp rises in electricity costs in recent years.”
The savings are achieved by a new type of motorization, the Omas Kinematic Energy Recovery System (KERS), which redistributes unused energy. The system also reduces roller mill electricity consumption and recovers the unused kinetic energy from the cylinders during milling.
Because the mill stands five stories tall, the gravitational force can be used in the process, which adds to energy savings.
The main equipment supplied by Omas includes six Galileo S p.g830 plansifters, eight Michelangelo mi50 purifiers, four Leonardo S 8x1250x250 roller mills and 34 Leonardo S 4x1000x250 roller mills.
The COVID pandemic trend in which home baking increased has been largely reversed, Guilloteau said.
“At one stage, people were baking cakes with their children,” he said. “Now they’ve gone back to work, and they don’t have the time anymore.”
He noted a long-term change in the role of many of France’s bakeries, as they’ve widened their offerings. France has a strong tradition of artisan bakeries, with a baker on every corner producing a constant supply of fresh bread throughout the day. Most are independent, although chains range up to the 850-branch giant Marie Blachère, which famously has a branch in New York, New York, US.
“They are increasingly replacing the traditional French café,” he said, selling sandwiches, cakes and coffee, with places for customers to sit down and eat. A large part of the reason is a decline in the popularity of the traditional two-hour lunch, as busy people change to snacking. It means that bakeries are also challenging fast-food chains such as McDonald’s, particularly as the US outlets have become more expensive.
“For some bakers, 80% of their turnover is now in sandwiches,” Guilloteau said, noting that a price advantage over more traditional restaurants was a major factor behind this trend.
Another big shift in recent years has been the call for sustainability, with consumers taking a greater interest in the origin of food and the environmental effects of its production. Of the more than 1,000 tonnes of wheat brought in each day by the mills at Corbeil-Essonnes, more than half comes from sustainable supply chains, including Semons du Sens, notably to produce the Baguépi flour range, as well as l’Authentique, la Tradition artisan, la Sélection d’antan, la Sélection ambrée, la Tradition prestige Label Rouge, and Terre de Sens Label Rouge.
Label Rouge (Red Label) is a widely used food quality standard in France described as identifying a higher quality level to standard food products.
For Moulins Soufflet, the sustainable flour segment has seen continuous growth over 18 years, with the volume of flour coming from sustainable supply chains increased by a factor of 12 over 12 years to reach 300,000 tonnes, involving at its source 3,200 partner farmers. Including other products, such as barley and wine, the Semons du Sens initiative covers more than 8,500 farmers.
It includes a commitment to use 100% traceable French wheat, produced using agricultural practices that protect the environment and promote biodiversity. The wheat is not treated after harvest, and carefully selected varieties are used. There’s also a commitment to fair distribution of value throughout the chain with a premium paid to farmers.
