L'atelier Papilles is one of the pioneers of bakery catering. For the past 10 years, this network of 2 branches and 26 franchises has been accelerating its development, with a target of 100 stores by the end of 2026. Guillaume Lopez-Marcoux, Founder, and Sébastien Billières, Director of Operations, emphasize the importance of listening to the network, which is essential for accelerating growth. They share with us their purchasing strategy to improve food cost for franchisees and limit food waste.
MATERIAL COST
gross margin increase
FOOD WASTE
precision on production plans
DEPLOYMENT
bakeries
"We gained 3 margin points thanks to Inpulse."
Sébastien Billières
Director of Operations L'atelier Papilles
L'atelier Papilles is a bakery and bakery catering franchise, France's favorite chain in 2020, 2021 and 2022 for its quality of service in the sandwich category (Source: Capital). Like many fast-growing franchises, L'atelier Papilles chose Inpulse to meet the challenges of its purchasing management strategy and provide effective support for its 30 franchisees:
"We had reached a turning point for L'atelier Papilles where it was essential to equip ourselves with a comprehensive tool to centralize purchasing. First of all, we wanted to simplify the processing of orders and credit note requests made by franchisees, and make it easier to reconcile invoices and delivery notes. With Inpulse, we have chosen a tool specialized in multi-site management, which meets all the needs of a network head, and which will enable us to better identify the purchasing volumes of franchisees, and therefore negotiate more effectively."
As the Director of Operations at L'atelier Papilles points out , franchisees are an integral part of the group's strategy. From the gathering of requirements to the choice of solution, franchisees were consulted in the implementation of this new strategic tool:
"During our logistics commissions, franchisees told us they needed a number of things: a simple tool to carry out their inventories, to place orders with the right quantities and to facilitate credit requests... We were looking for a tool that worked on margins at every stage of the supply chain. With Inpulse, we have ordering, inventory, centralized purchasing, loss identification, incoming inspection and analysis."
"The risk with this kind of tool is that it becomes a gas factory, the onboarding went very well, we're really supported by Chloé and the whole Inpulse team."
Inpulse helps set up processes for new openings, and provides real-time purchasing, inventory and food cost information used by franchisees and support functions at head office. The use of Inpulse's Forecasting and Ordering modules enables franchisees to efficiently forecast future sales and raw material requirements, thus reducing overstocking and unnecessary financial investments.
As Guillaume Lopez-Marcoux, President and Founder of L'Atelier Papilles, explains:
"Inpulse has enabled us to optimize supplies and logistics. We've gone from 4 to 6 deliveries a week to a single bi-temperature truck that groups all our needs for a single store for the week. No more half-empty pallets, the carbon impact is under control on the supplier delivery aspect."
"Inpulse's forecasts are reliable, with artificial intelligence able to achieve an accuracy rate of 95% on forecast sales and product mix." Anthony Nicolas, L'atelier Papilles network coordinator
"Thanks to Inpulse, bakers know what they need to produce each day to avoid waste. We can rely on Inpulse's forecasts; on a turnover of 2,500 to 3,000 euros, there is a maximum difference of 150 euros between what Inpulse had forecast and what actually happened. This has enabled us to drastically limit the number of unsold items over the last 5 months." Guillaume Lopez-Marcoux, President and founder of L'Atelier Papilles
"With the increase in raw material prices, we were faced with an erosion of margins. It was more and more difficult to keep technical data sheets and price lists up to date, with the resulting price changes. We used to negotiate twice a year, but now prices are not fixed, and it's difficult to maintain a commitment to a fixed price. Hence the importance of better structuring our purchasing as a group, and improving inventory management by identifying markdowns."
"Franchisees will be able to know their food cost per recipe sheet, control and reduce consumption discrepancies, and analyze inventory movements in detail thanks to Inpulse. The results for franchisees are extremely positive: with Inpulse's analysis data, we're able to highlight our margin losses and thus improve our food cost, we've gained 3 margin points since implementing the tool." Sébastien Billières, Operations Manager L'atelier Papilles
If you'd like to see a demonstration of Inpulse, ask for an appointment with an expert today to discover what Inpulse can do for you.
"We were looking for a tool that works on margin at all stages of the supply chain. With Inpulse, we have ordering, inventory, centralized purchasing, loss identification, incoming inspection and analysis all at once."
Sébastien Billières
Director of Operations L'atelier Papilles