About The Employer

PAUL celebrated its 125 year anniversary in 2014, arriving at this impressive milestone via five generations dedicated to creating great-tasting bread. It’s a remarkable story of one family whose belief in traditional, labour intensive baking methods and insistence on top quality ingredients have created the largest bakery in France today, and taken the PAUL name to more than 30 other countries. It all started when Julien Holder bought a bakery on Place de Strasbourg, Lille in 1953. Called PAUL, it was well known and had been going since 1889 so it made sense to keep the name. From the start the Holder family were determined to make their PAUL bakery a success and they weren’t afraid to be different. Undeterred by the trend in France for white bread, which was stale after two hours and tasted like cotton wool they embarked on their mission to change tastes. They understood the importance of ‘slow food’, and good ingredients long before it became a movement. Every PAUL loaf takes 7 hours to make and all are made by hand. Francis Holder and his son Maxime continue to share the family passion for baking and the French way of life with millions of loyal customers all over the world.