Premiere Moisson enters Ontario

NEWS HIGHLIGHT

Première Moisson enters Ontario
Québec artisan bakery Première Moisson has entered the Ontario market,
with a selection of its traditionally crafted breads at select supermarkets around the province.

Québec artisan bakery Première Moisson has entered the Ontario market, with a selection of its traditionally crafted breads at select A&P and Dominion supermarkets and Ultra Food & Drug stores in the GTA, The Barn Markets in Hamilton, and Loeb in Ottawa.

First opening in Montréal in 1992, the bakery today sells over 350,000 loaves of bread a week in its 15 large-scale bakeshops, as well as in supermarkets in Québec including Metro, Loblaws, Sobeys and Costco.
 
“Visitors from Ontario have told us repeatedly over the years how much they enjoy the authenticity and taste of our breads,” says Liliane Colpron, president and cofounder of Première Moisson. “They’ve asked, ‘When are you coming to Toronto?’ Well, the time is now.”
 
Last September, the company became the first bakery in Québec to grow its own wheat by partnering with Meunerie Milanaise, a company specializing in the milling of organic grains, and with Agrifusion, a group of wheat producers that use no pesticides or chemical fertilizers. The mill now supplies 90 per cent of the flour used to make Première Moisson’s breads.
 
“The type of wheat used – how it is grown and how it is milled – is so critical to producing the best-tasting traditional loaf,” says Colpron’s daughter, Josée Fiset, vice president of the company, who along with brothers Bernard and Stéphane Fiset, manages the family-run business.

Première Moisson worked with a local agronomist to select wheat varieties with a lower protein content to allow for slow rising of the breads. The move to homegrown wheat is in tune with increasing consumer concerns about food safety and purity and with the company’s mandate to follow the food from field to table.

"For the first time,” says Fiset, “we will be able to trace the flour right back to the grower.”
 
Première Moisson breads sold in Ontario are fully baked at the company’s Montréal headquarters, frozen, then shipped to individual stores in Ontario, where they are baked briefly in a hot oven (brown ‘n serve) at each store location.

The breads are featured in specialty wooden display cases with a Première Moisson banner in the bakery department of select stores.