Vandemoortele enters retail franchising with Bakery Canteen

Vandemoortele moves into food service through Bakery Canteen. The outlet, opened in Antwerp in May, is only the first step.

Vandemoortele’s potential

The pilot is located at number 12 on Groendalstraat, in the pedestrianised De Wilde Zee district, which has a strong shopping focus that wants to remain separate from the major commercial brands.

And then who knows? While other Belgian cities are already in the sights, other countries could also be in the pipeline.

In fact, the bakery queen has grown dramatically on the European chessboard, especially in Italy, where it first bought (May 2024) Dolciaria Acquaviva from the Apheon fund and the founding family, and then Lizzi (February 2025), from Sammontana.

In France it completed its largest deal, acquiring Délifrance, a transaction that created an industry leader, with combined revenue of 2,4 million euros (the transaction was approved by the European Commission in December 2025, although the UK and French competition authorities required substantial divestments).

Bakery Canteen also means takeaway

Bakery Canteen, from breakfast to aperitifs

But let us return to Antwerp, where the venue offers breakfasts, brunches, lunches, coffee, aperitifs and takeaway food.

The project was developed by Croustico, a brand created by the multinational food company with the initial aim of reaching food-service customers, providing them with all the know-how and ingredients needed to create successful bakery products, such as viennoiserie and patisserie.

But, during 2016, following the success of the brand Croustifrance, the group decided to rebrand it as Croustico by Vandemoortele, entering the bread market and beginning to support the development of traditional products.

Bakery Canteen’s strategy involves moving beyond the concept of a simple bakery, enabling it to cover, as mentioned, almost all meal occasions, withopening hours from 7 and 30 to 19, on weekdays, and from 8 and 30 to 19, on Saturdays and Sundays.

Franchising: entry requirements

And that is not all. Vandemoortele is now, as mentioned, planning to expand into other Belgian cities through franchising.

Contact with potential franchisees requires a minimum area of around 170 square metres, an entry fee for training and support of 30.000 euros, 5% in royalties, a 3% for marketing contributions and a total investment of between 200.000 and 400.000 euros.

In short, these requirements are only for genuine entrepreneurs with respectable capital to invest.

This article was translated from the original Italian version with the assistance of artificial intelligence. In case of discrepancies, please refer to the original Italian version.