The crumbler, machine for recycling unsold bread, from the start-up Expliceat -

Expliceat

  • After a smashing start and 125 machines sold in just over a year, the start-up came to a halt in 2020 with the crisis.

  • The founder of Expliceat Franck Wallett has, however, already developed a new strategy to continue to democratize his crumbler in bakeries in France.

  • The pastries made from recycled breadcrumbs have also enabled it to launch an eco-responsible catering offer.

Machines that sell… like hot cakes.

After launching in 2018, the Bordeaux start-up Expliceat sold 125 of its “crumbler” in 2019, a machine for crushing unsold bread in bakeries to make breadcrumbs.

"The year 2020 had also started very strongly, then the crisis fell on us, marking a halt since bakers no longer really had the head for that ..." summarizes the founder of the company Franck Wallet.

From left to right, Franck Wallet, Laurie Tisnerat, and the baker François Mateus.

- M.Bosredon / 20Minutes

The entrepreneur is far from being defeated, however.

“We thought about a new way to operate.

In particular, we realized that we sold our crumblers better when we first tested them with bakers, so we will generalize in 2021 loans of machines to professionals in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, to carry out a phase large-scale test, in partnership with Ademe and with co-financing from Suez.

Bakers can try it out for a month before buying it.

"

A machine values ​​between 1 ton and 1.5 tons of bread per year

The objective for Expliceat is to "democratize" its machine.

"It must become normal to have a crumbler in your bakery" insists Franck Wallet.

Sold for 2,000 euros (HT) each, the tool would pay for itself in less than a year.

The challenge for bakers is to add value to unsold products.

“The consumption of bakery customers is very variable from one day to another, and subject to contingencies such as the weather, quite simply because the customer goes out less when it rains,” explains Franck Wallet.

It is therefore very hard for the baker to adjust the volume of bread to be produced.

Our solution is to transform the unsold bread into breadcrumbs, to either sell it as is, or to bake new breads or sweet or savory recipes (cookies, muffins, pizza dough…).

This does not prevent establishments from continuing to make donations to associations.

Recycled bread can be used as a base for baking - Expliceat

Franck Wallet estimates that a machine in a bakery values ​​between 1 and 1.5 tonnes of bread per year, “so that our annual impact is nearly 200 tonnes.

"With 30,000 bakeries listed in France, the market potential is enormous.

Expliceat sells its product throughout France, and even a little abroad (Quebec, Chad…).

“We have also started to equip large retailers, such as Auchan-Lac and Carrefour Mérignac-Soleil.

"

An eco-responsible catering offer

Guillaume Devinat, from the Pomponette bakery in Bordeaux, was one of the very first to equip himself with a crumbler, in 2018. “I mainly use it to make bread, made from 20% recycled breadcrumbs,” explains. he does.

My customers are familiar with this product now.

It is a fairly dense baguette, with a little toasted taste, pleasant for toast, children's snacks ... I also use it for pastries such as cookies, cheese-cakes, but I never use 100 % of this breadcrumbs in my recipes, because the consistency of the dough would be too hard to work.

The crumbler can't do everything, and I still have some unsold items left on some days.

I cannot recycle everything because it requires a lot of handling, which poses a problem of time knowing that we are a small team.

"

"Each baker who equips himself brings new recipe ideas, which enriches our approach at the technical and taste level," adds Franck Wallet.

Thanks to this, we were able to develop an eco-responsible catering offer, which worked well until the Covid-19 crisis.

In particular, we had had many orders for cookies from communities such as Bordeaux Métropole and the Gironde department.

Since its launch, the crumbler has been validated twice, by the national bakery and pastry laboratory, and the chamber of trades laboratory.

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  • Aquitaine

  • Bakery

  • Bordeaux

  • Consumption

  • Planet

  • Bread

  • Recycling