Galaxy Desserts wants to take its line of authentic croissants, French pastries and gourmet desserts to a new level by participating in every meal and snacking occasion throughout the day.

“Snacking is a worldwide trend,” said Charlotte Dubois, marketing manager for the Richmond, Calif.-based company. “We wanted a product that is convenient with individually wrapped products and then push it further into the market.”

Take the company’s Brioche To Go! line of French brioche rolls, which come in six-count packs for breakfast, lunch and as an after-school snack. Currently, the kid-friendly treats made with non-GMO ingredients come in chocolate chip, chocolate-filled and strawberry varieties with more than 10 other types that can potentially be shipped from its French bakeries in the future.

 “Everybody likes chocolate filling and chocolate chips, and we wanted to bring some fruit with the strawberry,” Ms. Dubois said. “We also have the chocolate chips in our popular brioche loaf, and we know specialty stores like different flavors of the same item.”

The handhelds have a 12-month shelf life when frozen and up to 45 days after being slacked out at the store.

Galaxy Desserts has focused on in-store bakeries for the Brioche To Go! line, which made its debut at the 2022 International Dairy Deli Bakery Association’s show this summer. However, Ms. Dubois emphasized that it’s the No. 1 brioche snack in France and can be sold throughout supermarkets, specialty stores, convenience stores, warehouse clubs and mass merchandisers.

“We also want to push the product into the snack aisle as well and see how it does against the competition on the shelf,” Ms. Dubois pointed out. “Brioche To Go! has great visibility on the shelf because this specific packaging pops so much and grabs consumers’ attention.”

The company also offers Parisian macarons made by sandwiching two petite crisp cookie shells together with a flavorful filled center.

The classic line includes a 12-pack box of six assorted flavors, including chocolate hazelnut, lemon, raspberry, salted caramel, pistachio and vanilla. Its fruit-inspired retail pack includes coconut, raspberry, pistachio, fig with poppy seeds, mango and chocolate caramel.

The products are sold by in-store bakeries and have a refrigerated shelf life of 30 days and ambient for 15 days. In addition to a light snack throughout the day, the festive macarons are positioned for entertaining and holiday occasions.

“Supermarkets want to bring more consumers into their stores, and we are here to offer different ideas, multiple solutions and various recipes to offer consumers different products,” Ms. Dubois said.

In the freezer case, the company now has ready-to-bake croissants ranging from an eight-pack of its authentic mini-butter variety to a four-pack of its larger chocolate and custard freezer-to-oven item, which also captured a 2021 sofi award for best new product in the baked goods category.

Both the Brioche To Go! and the macarons are made by its parent company in France.

Galaxy Desserts is part of the family of 18 bakeries owned by Brioche Pasquier, which was started with Gabriel Pasquier’s small bakery shop in 1936. His five sons created the Brioche Pasquier company in 1974, and today the business operates bakeries throughout France, as well as in Spain and the United Kingdom along with sales offices in South Korea and several European countries.

By acquiring Galaxy Desserts, Brioche Pasquier established a much-desired foothold in the US market to sell its most popular products from France.

“For us, we are able to produce everything,” Mr. Bossard said. “If you look at other companies, they are much more focused on producing only the brioche product. Others are more focused on the pastries.”

Another significant initiative involved packaging innovation for its retail products. Instead of being cartoned like other baked snacks, Ms. Dubois said, the Brioche To Go! line relied on consumer surveys with both adults and children to develop the plastic bag that features a distinctive identity of coordinated diamonds, logos and other graphics to create a cohesive family of products.

She added sustainability is an important initiative for the Brioche Pasquier Group. Most recently, the company removed all plastic used in trays, shrink wrapping and other packaging for its croissant product line, resulting in 44,000 lbs of plastic savings in 2021.

Because the company also wanted to educate consumers about a one-of-a-kind treat in the market, the packaging design also focuses more on the handheld product’s image and being made with non-GMO ingredients.

It also highlights the Brioche To Go! name while downplaying the Brioche Pasquier brand because many in-store bakeries prefer to sell products under their own labels. The bag can stand up on the shelf for a display, which Ms. Dubois said is an important merchandising function for retail customers. For labor savings, supermarkets just need to put out the frozen products and attach a code date and price on the bag.

“The whole starting point was to focus on the products and make consumers understand just what brioche was, and that we are a brioche company,” she said. “That’s why we put the brand name in the lower part of the package.”

Meanwhile, the macaron line features a large, clear window on the front of the box to showcase the colorful cookies and highlight the six varieties.

This article is an excerpt from the November 2022 issue of Baking & Snack. To read the entire feature on Galaxy Desserts, click here.