QSR: There’s Life After Starbucks for La Boulange

After Starbucks announced it was closing all La Boulange stores last year, the fast casual bakery is assembling itself once again, reports QSR. There are now five stores in the San Francisco Bay Area, plus more in the works.

Back in the summer of 2012, Starbucks purchased La Boulange for $100 million and named the bakery’s founder, Pascal Rigo, the vice president of food at Starbucks. It was a big move for Starbucks, trying to enter the baking realm as much as they dominated the coffee industry. Fortunately, closing the stores didn’t tarnish the coffee retailer and bakery's relationship. “I love Starbucks. They are a fantastic company,” Rigo told QSR.

The bakery is now rebranding itself with the new name La Boulangerie de San Francisco. “For me,” says Rigo, “it’s not about how big we can get. It’s about, are we going to be the right kind of company that stays true to what we’ve started.”