CoPain

What CoPain does

CoPain is a privately held artisanal bakery operating as Broodmakers CoPain CV, a Belgian limited partnership founded in August 2016 in Ghent. Led by experienced baker Adriaan Druwé with a 6-person team, it runs a single retail location at F. Lousbergskaai 33 on the Lousbergmarkt, open six days a week (closed Thursdays since February 2024). A second site at Dok-Zuid 22 was closed in December 2022 due to staffing constraints.

The company's product offering is centred on traditional sourdough, yeast, and combination breads in wheat, spelt, and rye variants, produced using long-fermentation methods with proofing times up to 15 hours and a strict five-ingredient philosophy (flour, water, yeast/sourdough, salt, time) with no bread improvers, E-numbers, or ready-made mixes. Beyond bread, CoPain sells breakfast pastries (croissants, chocolate and raisin pastries), hard and soft "luxury" products (pistolets, baguettes, ciabatta, milk breads), cakes and tarts (including traditional Geraardsbergen mattentaartjes), seasonal specialties (speculaas, marzipan, Easter eggs, pasteis de nata), homemade jams, frozen pizza dough, and home-baking supplies under the "Thuisbakker" line. Ingredients are locally sourced from named Belgian suppliers: Molens Descamps (flour), Leestjeshoeve in Damme (dairy), and 't Eierboerke (free-range eggs).

CoPain's revenue model combines direct retail bakery sales, fee-based baking workshops (€85 per person, including structured gift vouchers valid 12 months), frozen dough retail, and home-baking supplies, distributed through the physical storefront, weekly Lousbergmarkt presence, phone reservations, and online workshop/voucher bookings. The customer base is fragmented across local Gent residents, walk-in visitors, and workshop attendees, with no enterprise clients. The bakery was voted Best Baker of Gent in 2022 and regularly participates in Dag van de Ambachten and earned media coverage on VRT's De Markt.

Name

CoPain

Legal name

Broodmakers CoPain CV

Website

https://copain.gent

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

CoPain is a privately held artisanal bakery in Ghent, Belgium, founded in 2016 by a 6-person team led by baker Adriaan Druwé. It sells traditional additive-free sourdough and yeast breads, pastries, workshops, and home-baking supplies to local consumers from a single Lousbergmarkt storefront.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Artisanal Bakery

NAICS

Retail Bakeries (311811), Baked Goods Retailers (445291)

SIC

Bakery Products (2050), Retail-Eating & Drinking Places (5810)

akta.pro primary industry

Retail Bakeries (Bread & Daily Bakery) (THAFAFAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

Bread & Artisan Baking (EDAOAKAC)

Keywords

• Artisanal bakery
• Sourdough bread
• Belgian pastries
• Baking workshops
• Long fermentation bread

Headquarters

HQ city

Ghent

HQ country

Belgium

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Supply Chain, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Retail Bakery Sales: Direct sales of freshly baked bread, pastries, cakes, and artisanal products at the physical bakery location on F. Lousbergskaai. Open Monday-Saturday with extended Sunday morning hours.
2. Workshop Fees: Baking workshops offered on Friday evenings teaching various skills from basic bread making to sourdough, croissants, and regional specialties. Workshops priced at €85 per person, with group bookings available for 8-15 people.
3. Gift Vouchers: Online and in-store purchase of gift vouchers for workshops and store purchases. Workshop gift vouchers sold at €85 and valid for 12 months.
4. Frozen Dough Products: Sale of frozen pizza dough for home use, sold directly in the bakery with instructions included.
5. Home Baking Supplies: Sale of baking ingredients including various flours, seeds, nuts, chocolate, spices, and dried fruits for home bakers through the 'Thuisbakker' section.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

CoPain is a Ghent-based artisanal bakery that produces additive-free bread from a five-ingredient recipe and a long fermentation process of up to 15 hours, alongside a range of pastries, cakes, breakfast items, and regional specialties such as mattentaartjes and large speculoas. In addition to in-shop retail, the bakery runs paid hands-on baking workshops and sells a workshop gift voucher at €85, positioning education and experience alongside daily bread sales. The assortment also extends to home-baker supplies, jam (confituur), and pizza dough for retail customers.

Product overview

CoPain is an artisanal bakery in Ghent, Belgium, founded in August 2016 under experienced baker Adriaan Druwé. The company operates with a 6-person team using traditional methods without additives, offering a diverse portfolio centered around artisan breads (desem, yeast, and combination breads in wheat, spelt, and rye), breakfast pastries (croissants, chocolate pastries, raisin pastries), luxury breads (pistolets, baguettes, ciabatta, fougasse), soft luxury items (sandwiches, raisin bread, milk breads), and cakes/pastries. The offering extends to seasonal specialties (speculaas, marzipan, klaaskoeken, Easter eggs, pasteis de nata), educational workshops teaching traditional bread-making techniques, home baking supplies (flours, seeds, nuts, chocolate, spices), and gift products (workshop gift vouchers, gift baskets). Products are made using only 5 ingredients: flour, water, yeast/sourdough, salt, and time, with ingredients sourced locally from suppliers including Molens Descamps (flour), Leestjeshoeve (dairy), and 't Eierboerke (free-range eggs).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Artisanal bread (Brood) Daily-baked additive-free bread made from only five ingredients and fermented for up to 15 hours, offered in sourdough (desembrood), yeast dough (gistdeeg), and mixed dough (gemengd deeg) varieties; sold to walk-in retail customers at the Ghent bakery.
• Breakfast pastries (Ontbijtkoeken) Sweet breakfast pastries baked on-site at the Ghent bakery and sold over the counter to local consumers.
• Soft luxury pastries (Zachte Luxe) Soft-luxury viennoiserie items such as croissants and pain au chocolat, baked in-house and sold to individual consumers at the shop.
• Hard luxury biscuits (Harde Luxe) Hard-luxury baked items including cookies and speculoos, produced at the bakery and sold to retail customers.
• Cakes and pastries (Taart & Gebak) Cakes and patisserie items baked on-site at CoPain and sold to individual customers for everyday and special-occasion consumption.
• Mattentaartjes Regional Flemish specialty mattentaartjes (matten croissants) made in-house at the bakery and sold to retail customers.
• Special occasion cakes Custom and special-occasion cakes produced by CoPain for individual customers celebrating events.
• Large speculoos (Grote Speculoas) Large-format speculoos biscuits baked in-house and sold to retail customers as a signature CoPain item.
• Confituur (jam) House-made jam sold alongside bread and pastries at the CoPain shop for retail customers.
• Pizza dough (Pizzadeeg) Fresh pizza dough sold from the bakery to retail customers for home preparation.
• Home-baker supplies (Thuisbakker) Assorted baking ingredients and supplies packaged for home bakers, sold at the CoPain shop.
• Baking workshops Paid hands-on baking workshops hosted at the CoPain bakery for individual participants, led by the head baker and focused on traditional artisanal baking techniques.
• Workshop gift voucher (€85) Priced gift voucher (€85) that can be purchased for an individual and redeemed for a hands-on baking workshop at the bakery.

Quantifiable outcome

• No additives or E-numbers used - only 5 pure ingredients

Named customers1 record

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Slagerij De HeerlijkheidminorOthers · 16 November 2025Local butcher partnering with CoPain for Dag van de Ambachten 2025 event. Both are artisanal producers sharing passion for quality and local products.
• Molens DescampscoreOthers · 1 January 2022Flour and grain supplier for wheat, spelt, and rye products. Local Belgian mill supporting CoPain's commitment to quality local ingredients.
• Leestjeshoeve (Damme)coreOthersDairy supplier providing local dairy products for use in bakery recipes.
• 't EierboerkecoreOthersFree-range egg supplier for all egg-based products in the bakery.
• LousbergmarktcoreOthersWeekly market community. CoPain participates in the Lousbergmarkt and relocated Dag van de Ambachten activities to this location in 2025.
• Osteria DelicatiminorOthersListed as a 'Friend of CoPain' - local restaurant/culinary partner.
• Vandekerckhove 1854minorOthersListed as a 'Friend of CoPain' - local partner/business.
• Gents Milieu FrontminorGTM or Marketing PartnerEnvironmental organization partnered with CoPain for a promotional campaign offering one year of free bread as a prize for members.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Gail's Artisan Bakery: UK artisanal bakery chain selling hand-baked breads, pastries, and cakes with an emphasis on craft methods and local ingredients. Comparable to CoPain in artisan positioning, though operating at much greater scale.
• Bertinet Bakery: Bath, UK-based artisan bakery and cookery school founded by baker Richard Bertinet, combining retail bread sales with paid baking classes. Closely comparable to CoPain in the combined retail-plus-workshop artisan bakery model.
• Maison Dandoy: Belgian traditional bakery specializing in speculoos and biscuits with a flagship store in Brussels. Directly comparable as a Belgian artisan bakery brand built on traditional craft and heritage recipes.
• Aux Merveilleux de Fred: French-Belgian patisserie chain built around a single signature product (merveilleux) with traditional French-Belgian craft methods. Comparable to CoPain in the Belgian-French artisan specialty-bakery category and in-store baked-fresh positioning.
• Bread Ahead: London-based artisan bakery and baking school offering hands-on workshops and a bakery storefront. Closely comparable to CoPain in combining retail bread sales with paid baking classes and a craft, additive-free positioning.

Broad incumbents

• Le Pain Quotidien: Belgian-origin international bakery-restaurant chain serving rustic, organic-leaning breads in a communal-table format. Comparable to CoPain in its Belgian roots and organic-ingredient philosophy, but operates at global scale with a much broader menu.
• Paul (Groupe Holder): Historic French artisanal bakery chain (founded 1889) operating bakeries and patisseries across Europe. Comparable to CoPain in traditional French/European artisan bread craft but with national/international scale and broader product range.
• Délifrance: French bakery-cafe brand and bakery supplier with operations across Europe, serving both retail and B2B foodservice channels. Comparable in European artisan-bakery positioning but at significantly larger scale and with broader distribution.
• St Pierre Bakery: UK-based bakery brand producing premium artisan breads, brioche, and pastries for retail and foodservice. Comparable in product category (artisan breads, brioche) and European consumer base, though operating at industrial scale via grocery distribution.

Regional players

• Wittamer: Belgian patisserie and chocolate brand with a flagship shop in Brussels, focused on high-end traditional Belgian pastry craft. Comparable to CoPain as a Belgian artisan bakery with strong local brand recognition, though specializing more in patisserie/chocolate than bread.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/broodmakerscopain
• Instagraminstagram.com/broodmakerscopain

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about CoPain