Montreal, May 11th 2016 – Founded by Roland and Odette Étienne, the bakery has been offering traditional French bread to Montrealers since 1956.

To celebrate this anniversary, Au Pain Doré created the 1956, a signature baguette which, for many, will bring back tasteful memories from their childhood. Produced with unbleached wheat flour and natural rye yeast, the baguette reminds a taste of yesteryear. Also, the baguette is marked in a unique way with six slightly floured blade strokes that refer to the six decades of success of Au Pain Doré.

The 1956 baguette will be the bakery’s feature product this May and will be available throughout 2016. On Friday May 20, the 1956 will be featured in the nine Au Pain Doré boutiques in Montreal and will be sold at the symbolic price of 25¢, an amount that recalls the days of the bakery’s foundation when products were sold for nickels and dimes.

Press release - For immediate distribution

Au Pain Doré is

celebrating 60 years

of history, dreams and

knowledge in 2016.

Au Pain Doré Celebrates 60th AnniversarySignature 1956 baguette sold for 25¢ on May 20th

25c

BAGUETTE�e1956AU PRIX D’UNE May 20th, 2016

To celebrate the anniversary and to acknowledge its loyal customers, Au Pain Doré is hosting a contest in its stores with a grand prize worth $1,956. The prize will allow two couples to enjoy a retro Saturday which will include a historic city tour of Montreal aboard a 1956 car model, followed by a French dinner at Chez Alexandre. The lucky winners will also receive a picnic basket filled with products and commemorative aprons from Au Pain Doré. A gift certificate of $60 will also be drawn in each boutique among all participants.

Since its beginnings when the bakery only sold in bulk, up to today, where the bakery has become a Montreal emblem, Au Pain Doré has never ceased to be the reference for quality French bread. The company is now part of Groupe Le Duff, which also specializes in quality bakery through several brands around the world.

For more information about Au Pain Doré’s history or the 1956 baguette, please see the attached annexes.

Media Relations:Pascaline Varin

Exacto Communications514.273.3793, poste 224

pvarin@exacto.ca

For many, the 1956 baguette will bring back tasteful memories from their childhood. Produced using unbleached wheat flour and natural rye yeast, the 1956 results in a baguette with genuine aromas, a raw colour and a taste our ancestors would instantly recognize.

With its six scores, the baguette is deemed unique as baking traditions favor odd numbers. The six blade strokes are slightly floured and represent the six decades of Au Pain Doré’s success.

The 1956 baguette will be Au Pain Doré’s feature product in May to celebrate the French bakery’s 60th anniversary and will also be sold throughout the year.

The 1956 baguette, a new icon

1956 Baguette: 25¢ (May 20th only)

The honour of creating a signature baguette to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Au Pain Doré was given to Eric Codbreuil who has been a baker at Au Pain Doré for the past 16 years.

After a rough start in America, life, great encounters and perseverance brought the couple and their young children to the Rosemont neighbourhood. Thanks to the solidarity of the Basque community living in Montreal, the Étienne couple was able to acquire a bakery with two Mignolet ovens on Marquette Street in 1956.

Au Pain Doré was born. At first, the bakery was selling exclusively in bulk and was successful thanks to a loyal restaurant owner clientele. They were seduced as much by exceptional baguettes and French breads, than by Roland’s charm and diplomacy. For her part, Odette was an outstanding businesswoman and was managing a growing number of orders.

It was only in 1983 that the first Au Pain Doré bakery opened in an old garage turned into a beautiful boutique. The new store allowed customers from the neighborhood to taste the real quality of true French bread. Jean-Marc Étienne, who by then was managing the company, started using a combination of technology and tradition to plan the evolution of Au Pain Doré. With a developed sense for mechanics, he modernized the production processes to re-lease bakers from several handlings. For him, the winning recipe was to intervene mechanically where it would not affect the bread.

The growing success of the Marquette Street bakery was so remarkable that an expansion of Au Pain Doré bou-tiques and products was a given! Thanks to the vision of Jean-Marc’s spouse, Diane, the quality of Au Pain Doré was transported to other locations. In 1991, a store opened on St-Denis Street and in 1992 Au Pain Doré expanded with two new boutiques on Peel Street and on Laurier

Avenue. In 1995, the company opened three new bakeries located across the city: on McGill Street, on Mont-Royal Avenue and on Côte-des-Neiges.

The growing demand for breads, pastries, sandwiches, desserts and other products made production and multiple daily deliveries more complicated. With that same combi-nation of modernization and artisanal methods in mind, the company opened a new baker workshop on Rouen Street in 1997. Jean-Marc’s desire to combine both knowledge and technology was used to create the best bread possible and in ideal conditions.

Over the years, the bread’s quality, the staff’s friendli-ness and the bakery’s success brought Au Pain Doré on Saint-Laurent Boulevard, in Laval, at the Jean-Talon Mar-ket, in NDG, Westmount and at the Atwater Market.

In 2008, the family company garnered attention from Groupe Le Duff, which also specializes in high quality bakery and owns many brands across the world. Au Pain Doré joined the Group sharing the same ambition as the three generations of the Étienne family that had worked for the company through the years: develop and share the passion for fine products and keep Au Pain Doré as THE reference for great traditional French bread in Montreal. With success still at the heart of Au Pain Doré, two new stores opened in 2016: a kiosk in Place Ville-Marie and a new boutique on Des Laurentides Boulevard in Laval.

60 years after Roland and Odette Étienne’s dream came true, the same values and the same great taste are still at the heart of the nine Au Pain Doré bakeries.

60 Years of History, Dreams and Knowledge

It was to pursue an adventurous dream that Roland and Odette Étienne boarded the Georgic for a two week trip across the Atlantic to get to Montreal in 1951.