Le Pain des Cairns

What Le Pain des Cairns does

Le Pain des Cairns is a worker-owned cooperative (SCOP SARL) bakery in Grenoble, France, founded in 2014 by Cédric and converted to cooperative ownership in 2018. It produces organic sourdough breads, brioches, biscuits and seasonal pastries from a single retail and production site at 54 bis rue Abbé Grégoire, using natural levain fermentation (each bread type uses a dedicated starter), low-salt recipes (max 14 g salt/kg flour versus an 18 g industry norm) and whole-grain or specialty flours from named partners including Moulin Pichard and Sylvain Betto's Moulin du Vieux Chêne. Production runs six days a week on equipment including Salva mixers and a Tagliavini oven with four independent chambers capable of ~290 kg of dough per hour, yielding roughly 600 kg of dough per day and supplying up to 500 retail customers.

The business operates two channels: direct-to-consumer retail at the storefront (with a loyalty account offering 5% off) and B2B delivery to local bars and restaurants (LABO, CIEL, BAR RADIS, L'Assiette Bavarde, Les Mijotées, BAM BAM, Dragonne Pizza) coordinated by a dedicated B2B role. Pricing is by weight, with the only publicly listed SKU at €9.25/kg; revenue and churn are not disclosed. There is no e-commerce or third-party resale channel.

Le Pain des Cairns monetises primarily through point-of-sale retail volume, supplemented by professional B2B supply. Its competitive positioning rests on AB organic certification, measurable health differentiation (low salt, glycemic index 32–45 versus 90 for industrial baguette) and a distinctive cooperative employer brand — 32-hour work week, menstrual leave, transparent salary bands, and zero dividends since SCOP conversion. Growth is constrained by a single location and modest capital base (share capital €9,250), with the most recent reported growth print of +30% to +40% revenue following the 2020 store expansion and morning-opening launch.

Name

Le Pain des Cairns

Legal name

Le Pain des Cairns

Website

https://lepaindescairns.fr

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Le Pain des Cairns is a Grenoble-based worker-owned cooperative bakery producing organic sourdough breads, brioches and biscuits from a single storefront, serving local retail customers and supplying nearby bars and restaurants.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Artisanal Bakery Products

NAICS

Retail Bakeries (311811), Bread and Bakery Product Manufacturing (31181), Cookie and Cracker Manufacturing (311821)

SIC

Bakery Products (2050), Cookies & Crackers (2052), Retail-Eating Places (5812)

akta.pro primary industry

Bread & Pastry Specialty Stores (CRAHAGAC)

akta.pro secondary industry

Cookie & Brownie Shops (THAFAGAF)

Keywords

• Organic sourdough bread
• Artisanal bakery products
• Biological pastries
• Specialty flour breads
• Cooperative bakery

Headquarters

HQ city

Grenoble

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Personnel, Supply Chain, Infrastructure, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Retail bread and pastry sales: Direct sales of biological breads, brioches, biscuits, and seasonal products to end consumers at the storefront. All products sold by weight using two connected scales. Customer accounts with 5% discount available.
2. Professional B2B / restaurant and bar supply: Delivery of breads and pastries to local bars and restaurants in Grenoble. Customer logos shown include LABO, CIEL, BAR RADIS, and others. This is a dedicated B2B revenue stream separate from retail.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Le Pain des Cairns is an organic artisan bakery in Grenoble that produces and sells daily a range of AB-certified biological sourdough breads, brioches, biscuits, and seasonal specialties. The bakery sells directly to consumers at its Saint-Bruno storefront and delivers to local restaurants and bars, with all production driven by natural levain fermentation, low-salt and low-glycemic-index recipes, and supply from local mills.

Product overview

Le Pain des Cairns is an organic artisan bakery operating as a SCOP (worker cooperative) in Grenoble, France, founded in 2014. The product offering centers on a daily production of organic sourdough breads made with natural leaven and slow fermentation, including classic breads (pain de campagne, pain aux graines, pain complet, pain au chocolat), specialty regional breads (TTL/Tres Tres Local from Trièves, Pain du Trièves, Pain de Khorasan), rye breads, and Petit Épeautre. The product line extends to pastries including brioches, biscuits (canistrellis, cracairns, cookies, amarettis), and seasonal specialties such as panettone and pain d'épices for Christmas. All products feature notably low salt content (8.57g/kg for the least salty bread) and low glycemic indices (ranging from 32 to 45), reflecting the bakery's focus on health-conscious traditional baking.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Pains Classiques Traditional organic sourdough breads including pain de campagne nature, pain de campagne aux graines, pain complet, and pain au chocolat, produced daily using slow fermentation and natural levain. Sold by weight at the Grenoble storefront and to local restaurants.
• TTL (Très Très Local) A line of breads made with stone-milled T80 flour from Sylvain Betto's farm (Moulin du Vieux Chêne, Lavars, Isère), featuring very short supply chain and overnight cold fermentation. Includes campagne très très local, brioche breads, chocolate, raisin, and olive breads.
• Pain du Trièves

Quantifiable outcome

• Salt content of 8.57g per kg of cooked bread (pain aux graines) vs. national average of 13.8-16.7g per kg
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Moulin Pichard (Stephane Pichard)coreOthersPrimary flour supplier delivering approximately 1,500kg of flour per week to Le Pain des Cairns. Supplies T80 and T65 wheat flour, seigle T170, and specialty flours (Petit Epeautre, Khorasan, Grand Epeautre). Family-owned mill in Malijai (south of Sisteron) operating since 1992. Seventh-generation miller Stephane Pichard maintains human-scale operations with 10 employees producing approximately 5,000 tonnes of wheat per year, all organic. Delivers directly with their own trucks primarily in region PACA. Wheat sourced exclusively from departments 04, 05, and 84 (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Hautes-Alpes, and Vaucluse).
• Sylvain Betto (Moulin du Vieux Chene)coreOthersFarmer-miller supplying flour for the 'Tres Tres Local' (TTL) product line. Operates from Lavars in the Trieves region of Isere. Produces T80 wheat flour on stone mill (Astrie-type mill). The TTL line (campaigne tres tres local, brioche breads, chocolate, raisin, olive breads) uses this exclusively local flour. This is the most local supply chain in the bakery's portfolio.
• Lauriane Mietton / INRAEminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborative research partnership with former employee Lauriane Mietton, now conducting doctoral research at INRAE (Institut national de recherche pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement) in Montpellier. The 'Projet Pain Mouture et Microbiote' studies the impact of milling type (stone mill vs. cylinder mill) on flour, sourdough microbiota, and bread quality (organoleptic, nutritional, and sanitary). Le Pain des Cairns participated by initiating seven different levains and hosting consumer tasting sessions in November 2020.
• Ecole Internationale de Boulangerie (EIDB)minorOthersInternational School of Bakery located near Sisteron, where Cedric (founder of Le Pain des Cairns) was trained. Le Pain des Cairns regularly hosts EIDB students for internships. This is the same school whose development has expanded Moulin Pichard's distribution to include locations as far as Landes, Brittany, and Dijon.
• La Goupille (menuisery)minorOthersCarpentry workshop in Romans-sur-Isere, part of the Grenade network (groupement d'entreprises en cooperative). Constructed custom wooden furniture for the expanded store in 2020-2021, including checkout counters, bulk display furniture, and rolling storage units. Wood sourced locally. Furniture built entirely by hand.
• Sandrine Duez (farmer-baker)minorOthersFarmer-baker friend of the Le Pain des Cairns team, operating near Entrepierres. Hosted the team during their summer 2023 visit to Moulin Pichard. Grows her own wheat and mills it on a small Astrie stone mill. Sells bread at local markets. Represents the local small-scale farmer-baker model the bakery admires.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Poilâne: Iconic Paris wood-fired sourdough bakery with global brand recognition, retail storefronts, and B2B supply to luxury hospitality. Comparable in artisanal sourdough positioning, wood/natural levain technique, and direct-to-consumer retail model — but operating at substantially larger scale and price premium.
• Pain Pain: Paris-based artisan boulangerie specializing in sourdough breads and pastries sold through retail storefronts. Highly comparable in product category, single/multi-storefront retail model, and direct-to-consumer artisanal positioning.
• Mamiche: Paris-based biological artisan bakery operating multiple storefronts with a focus on sourdough, slow fermentation, and direct-to-consumer retail. Highly comparable in product (sourdough breads, pastries), customer positioning (health-conscious urban consumers), and biological/organic sourcing — though at significantly larger scale.
• Les French Bastards: Paris artisan bakery group with multiple locations focused on hand-crafted breads and viennoiseries. Comparable in artisanal positioning, urban storefront retail model, and product range (breads, pastries, viennoiseries).
• Land & Monkeys: Multi-location Parisian biological bakery with strong brand identity and direct-to-consumer retail focus. Directly comparable in biological/organic positioning, sourdough-led menu, and urban specialty-storefront format — represents the scaled-up version of Le Pain des Cairns' model.

Regional players

• Bread Alone Bakery: Organic artisan bakery in New York's Hudson Valley operating multiple retail locations plus wholesale and farmers' market channels. Comparable in organic certification, sourdough-led product range, and hybrid retail/wholesale go-to-market — US-based.
• Bien Cuit: Brooklyn-based artisan bakery known for slow-fermented, hearth-baked breads with a strong craft and provenance narrative. Comparable in artisanal single-origin grain sourcing, natural levain technique, and direct-to-consumer retail model.
• Tartine Bakery: San Francisco-based artisan bakery famous for naturally leavened sourdough breads and pastries. Highly comparable in product category (organic sourdough, slow fermentation) and brand positioning around craft and transparency, but operates in the US market.

Broad incumbents

• Maison Kayser: Established French artisan bakery chain with international locations, founded by Éric Kayser. Overlaps on sourdough positioning and bakery craftsmanship but operates at much greater scale, with both retail and B2B/wholesale channels — a broad incumbent rather than a direct niche competitor.
• Le Grenier à Pain: Multi-location French artisan bakery chain with traditional breads, pastries, and viennoiseries. Comparable in artisanal French bakery positioning and product mix but operates as a broader, scaled retail chain rather than a single-storefront worker cooperative.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/lepaindescairns
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/lepaindescairns

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

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 Le Pain des Cairns