{"id":5702,"date":"2020-10-23T18:21:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T16:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/labodicton.be\/desobry\/made-in-chez-nous-desobry-biscuits-from-tournai-conquering-the-world\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T20:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T18:54:08","slug":"made-in-chez-nous-desobry-biscuits-from-tournai-conquering-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.desobry.be\/en\/made-in-chez-nous-desobry-biscuits-from-tournai-conquering-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"“Made in Chez Nous”: Desobry biscuits from Tournai conquering the world"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Desobry. This name may not ring a bell, but you have probably already tasted these biscuits from Tournai, presented in metal or cardboard boxes, sometimes under a distributor brand. The company founded by L\u00e9on Desobry in 1947 has experienced remarkable acceleration over the past twenty years: turnover has tripled during this period to reach thirty million euros. A success story worthy of featuring in our “Made in Chez Nous” series, which highlights companies that are thriving internationally. <\/p>\n\n

“I have been here for forty years<\/em>,” explains Jean-Louis Delannoy, a worker assigned to the ovens. “I have never worked anywhere else. At the beginning, we had old machines, but that has changed<\/em>.” In the 1980s and 1990s, the biscuit factory passed into the hands of various international groups (Pillsbury and Grant Metropolitan). The owners under-invested in the Tournai facility, which prompted one of the executives of the English group, Thierry Huet, to buy the company in 2000: “The equipment was outdated, but I believed in it because we had this capacity for innovation<\/em>. And biscuits have a shelf life that allows them to reach all corners of the world. The international aspect, export, is essential<\/em>.”<\/p>\n\n

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\"verification<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"desobry<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"fabrication<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n

Sophisticated pearls<\/h2>\n\n

“Our market is the world<\/em>,” says the managing director of Desobry. And to appeal to the world, the company focuses on increasingly sophisticated biscuits. “Here, we are working on raspberry-chocolate pearls and cr\u00e8me br\u00fbl\u00e9e pearls<\/em>,” indicates Ma\u00ebva Caron, Research and Development Manager. In terms of packaging as well, nothing is left to chance. The boxes are carefully decorated to make them objects to give at the end-of-year holidays… or at Chinese New Year. China, Australia, the United States, England: over forty countries consume biscuits made in Tournai. <\/p>\n\n

It is not easy to be competitive given production costs in Belgium: “Labor costs us \u20ac29\/hour,<\/em> emphasizes Thierry Huet, a fervent advocate for reducing social charges. In Leipzig, it is \u20ac17\/hour and in Poland, it can drop to \u20ac7\/hour. In Western Europe, industry can only reduce these cost gaps by relying on robotization and digitalization<\/em>.”<\/p>\n\n

The choice of Tournai-West despite competition from the East<\/h2>\n\n

This strategy allows the Tournai company to continue developing. As it was cramped in its historic premises on the edge of Tournai, Desobry purchased a five-hectare site in Orcq, in the Tournai-West business park. In 2019, a brand new packaging plant came into operation there. Eventually, all activity could be relocated there: there is sufficient space. The challenge remains finding the financing. <\/p>\n\n

In a market dominated by giants (Nestl\u00e9, Mars, Mondelez, Ferrero and Lindt), Desobry has managed to increase its market share in recent years while maintaining employment at around two hundred people during peak season. “Our direct competitors are mainly German family groups, Griesson, Lambertz and Bahlsen. They are ten to twenty times larger than us, primarily thanks to their substantial domestic market. This allows them to take more risks in export, to lower their margins or to open offices abroad<\/em>.”<\/p>\n\n

\"desobry<\/figure>\n\n

Fewer biscuits shared with family<\/h2>\n\n

In 2016, Desobry attempted to acquire another Belgian biscuit maker, Delacre. But the operation failed and it was the Italian group Ferrero that won the bid. In 2020, the health crisis and its lockdown had an impact on the sale of biscuit boxes: “There were fewer family gatherings. These are prime moments for consuming our products. In April and May, we lost thirty percent of our turnover<\/em>,” laments Thierry Huet, and he acknowledges it: Desobry, like so many others, fears a second lockdown. But the company believes in its strengths. And intends to continue producing its Tournai biscuits for a long time to come. <\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

Source: https:\/\/www.rtbf.be\/article\/made-in-chez-nous-les-biscuits-tournaisiens-desobry-a-la-conquete-du-monde-10603121<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Desobry. This name may not ring a bell, but you have probably already tasted these biscuits from Tournai, presented in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5703,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desobry.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desobry.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desobry.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desobry.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desobry.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.desobry.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desobry.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desobry.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desobry.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desobry.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}