St Pierre Groupe brought a big team to New Orleans to staff a big booth for IDDBA 2025.
Sarah Boddy, UK-based managing director of St Pierre Groupe, said the show is the only one where the brioche pioneer brings this large a booth, which is modeled after the famous French neighborhood Montmartre and the café culture found there.
The theme of the booth, “Eat Avec Respect,” is a playful poke at how seriously the French take their baked goods.
“We’re making fun of the French but in the nicest possible way, because the French are so passionate about their food – they’re passionate about their brioche,” she said. “They get so emotional when people disrespect the brioche, hence the Eat Avec Respect. You mustn’t disrespect the brioche.”
The campaign launched in conjunction with grilling season in the UK last year. It debuted in the U.S. this year with a Super Bowl ad that is resurfacing during this year’s U.S. grilling season, spanning the three major holidays – Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day.
“These are three key events that we really activate in store, that we promote,” she said. “That’s when we basically put all of that display focus in-store to drive the brand, to inspire people with different ways of using brioche.”
St Pierre’s brioche product lines in the U.S. include Brioche Burger Buns in 4- and 6-packs; Sesame Seed Brioche Buns in 4-packs; Brioche Pretzel Rolls in 6-packs; Brioche Slider Rolls in 12-packs; Brioche Hot Dog Rolls in 6-packs; Brioche Loaf; Brioche Sub Rolls in 4-packs; and Brioche Rolls in 8-packs. It also offers Croissants in 8-packs and All Butter Mini Croissants in 10-packs.
She said that those who buy St Pierre brioche products are “very loyal. When they pick it up at the start of the season, they then stick with it normally throughout.”
An out-of-home campaign in the Los Angeles area is part of the company’s marketing efforts this year.
Waffle multipacks in the spotlight
While the company was not debuting products at IDDBA this year, it did showcase new packaging and display options for its Belgian Waffles, which launched about a year ago.
Available in butter, cinnamon, maple and chocolate chip varieties, the waffles are now sold in 6-packs in addition to single-serve. St Pierre offers waffle display racks that clip onto its Eiffel Tower-themed displays or onto the store shelf.
“We’re getting a lot of interest in those,” she said, adding that retailers St Pierre encountered at the show were looking for “what’s new, for inspiration.”
Bringing younger shoppers to ISB
While in-store bakery traditionally attracts more seasoned shoppers, “St Pierre is really attracting that more loyal, younger, affluent shopper,” Boddy noted.
“If we can continue to inspire those shoppers … with our activations, with our shippers, our Eiffel Towers, our displays, then they’re encouraged to pick our products up because there may be a promotion on it, or they just go, ‘I love the packaging. I want to try this.’ Then, we’ve done our job of bringing those younger shoppers in.”
Brand investment to grow
The company brought brioche to the U.S. on a large scale about a decade ago. St Pierre “created the brioche category, essentially,” Boddy told Shelby Publishing representatives Maggie Kaeppel and Sommer Stockton.
“We’re now a $100 million brand, so we are investing in the brand. Our packaging, our communications, our campaigns are everything to us, because we want consumers to have an affinity with the brand,” she said.
“They want to be able to be proud to bring the St Pierre brioche out, because it stands for something authentic and French, and it means something to them, and we’ll continue to invest in the brand in that way.”
Competitors are beginning to come into the brioche category, but St Pierre plans to stay the course.
“If you start just trying to compete with a private label or with other competitors, it’s just a race to the bottom on price. And that’s not what we’re about. We’re premium, and we’re going to continue to invest as such,” Boddy said.
“We’re going to maintain our premium authenticity because we’ve got great products. We sell them at a great price. Retailers are making a lot of money from us, and we’re good for the category,” she continued.
“The investment that we’re putting in behind the brand is significantly increased this year versus last year, and it will continue to increase as time goes on. We’ve got still low awareness for our brand and household penetration in the U.S., so we need to invest to make sure that we can bring the brand to more people. That’s our opportunity.”
The IDDBA show helps St Pierre continue to introduce the brand to more U.S. grocers.
“We love the show; it’s really important to us,” Boddy said. “We get to meet all our biggest customers, existing customers and new customers as well. We have a big team, a big contingent, here. I’ve come over from the UK; we’ve got other team members over from the UK as well. It’s the biggest and most important show for us.”
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