History
Merand is a family business, located in Brittany (west of France) since 50s'.
In 1954, the company produced its first moulder for baguettes. Then in the 60s' the company expanded its range with hydraulic dividers and other moulders. In the 70s' Merand began to produce various types of intermediate proofers. Merand became specialist in dough processing developing automatic proofers and groups for automatic breadmaking.
In the 80s', the company began to produce automatic groups for semi-industrialized bakeries. In the meantime, they have also made their first steps in selling for export where its know-how, in particular for moulded baguettes, has been recognized all over the world.
Merand has also produced its own moulders that have been sold to other manufacturers selling them under their own brand. This was the case for example of Werner & Pfleiderer in Germany, Mono in UK and Rondo in USA.
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In 1994, Yannick Gérard, actual CEO of Merand, joined his father Pascal Gérard who was the soul of Merand and the instigator of the strategy of the company: to become expert in the dough processing for baguettes and French breads. He passed away in 2010 but he never stopped ensuring that machines produced by Merand were respecting the dough whatever the speed of the machine was.
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Yannick Gérard emphasised the development of Merand by stopping the production of machines under other brands and by creating collaborations with dealers worldwide under Merand brand only. Today, around 50% of the annual turnover is made at the export.
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Maryse Badra joined his brother at the end of 90s' taking in charge the management of the business.
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In 2000, Merand took over the activities of Pan Eiffel company which was producing the scoring machine called Grigne Pains. This enabled Merand to take markets on bigger bakeries and industrial bakeries as well.
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In 2008, Merand took a strategic shift. In order to accelerate the development abroad, the company decided to stay the expert of dough processing but to expand the range to be able to divide and mould all types of bread in the world. A daring challenge but which fills the needs of dealers who need to find a partner for all dough processing of their customers.
The development of the range has been made thank to Merand R&D department and with some other European manufacturers in order to save time and earn R&D money.
Today, Merand has machines and automatic groups for baguettes, small and French breads but also for ciabatta, focaccia, small rustic breads or sandwich breads and for rounded breads. For now, only Arabic breads such as pita are not in their field of competence.