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How it all began 

PAUL Bakery is a company rich in family, history and tradition. Our business has spanned five generations and our formula is simple: excellent bread depends on excellent ingredients and time-honored methods of production.

PAUL Today 

PAUL serves 4.6 million customers per month.

3.6 million loaves of bread are sold per month at PAUL.

5,000 PAUL “flutes” are sold every hour in France.

PAUL has 6,550 colleagues all over the world.

PAUL operates 453 shops in 24 countries around the world, 326 of which are in France and 127 abroad.

PAUL is the number one bakery in transit places including train stations, airports, etc.

PAUL is the only French bakery company with more than 120 years of savoir-faire.

 

PAUL is a family company built upon a foundation of time-honored production methods passed down for five generations. Our company is rich in history, family and the spirit of excellent, authentic bread.

Some important years in PAUL Bakery's exciting journey include:


1889

The Mayot family, a family of agricultural workers in the Artois region of Northern France, led by Charlemagne Mayot and his wife ran a small bakery located Rue de la Mackellerie in Croix, near Lille. His son Edmond Mayot took over the family business in 1908.

1935

Suzanne Mayot, daughter of Edmond Mayot and granddaughter of Charlemagne Mayot, married Julien Holder. They set up a bakery located Rue des Sarrazins in Lille.


1953

Suzanne and Julien's son Francis Holder began working with his parents who, by then, had taken over a famous bakery-patisserie belonging to the PAUL family at Place de Strasbourg in Lille. The PAUL name was retained.

 

1958

Julien Holder passes away, and his son Francis took over the family bakery in Lille with his mother and began to develop the business. “We were well known for our wide range of so-called 'Viennese' breads - the fancy breads that you can still buy in our shops today - at a time when most people only knew and liked white bread."

 

1972

Francis renovated the family bakery in Lille, and without realizing the effect this would have, installed a wood-fired oven that operated in full view of customers. A simple idea qualified by Francis as “common sense”, yet quite innovative for the time, seeing bread made in this purely traditional fashion: kneading, proving, shaping, finishing, long fermentation, baking, etc, allowed customers to rediscover the quality and taste of quality bread and would be an important contribution to the establishment's success.


1993

Francis Holder hoped to re-enliven PAUL and added two new components to the business; the now famous black store fronts and the development of a rustic line of specialty breads using sustainably produced winter wheat.


2005

Francis Holder appoints his children to lead the company and nominates son Maxime as CEO of PAUL Bakery. Maxime still leads the company to date.

 

2009

PAUL celebrates its 120 year anniversary and renews the company's commitment to providing fresh bread, baked daily using traditional, time-honored methods, by introducing the “Charlemagne” baguette to honor founder Charlemagne Mayot.


2011

PAUL Bakery opens in Washington, DC and prepares to blanket the city in the smell of freshly baked breads and the flavors of flaky, buttery croissants.