Gouet have been supplying industrial baking systems for over 50 years, with bread being the traditional bedrock of the French company’s expertise. Jérôme Dartiguenave, vice president sales, speaks to Annie Launois.   

 

How did Gouet begin?

In 1905, the Gouet brothers, who were masons, devoted their time to the building of ovens for the bakery sector. In 1923, André Gouet, their nephew, took over the management and started to develop the company. After this, the key dates in the firm’s history are: 1950, when brickwork was replaced by metal; 1955, when the first cyclothermic deck oven was produced; 1958, when the first tunnel oven was manufactured and; 1968, when the first automatic line (1500 loaves/hour) became operational.  

 Today, more than 3 million baguettes, 5 million croissants, 1 million pizzas, and 2 million artisan breads are baked in our industrial baking systems every day.  

 

 Has the market for bakery ovens evolved much over recent years?

Though modern ovens may not look very different from what they used to 10 or 20 years ago, the sector has actually seen a lot of innovations in terms of reliability, ease of maintenance and operation.   

 

Are Gouet ovens suitable for all types of bread?

Gouet has been involved in baking technology for many years. Today, our know-how enables us to produce a wide range of ovens using radiation, conduction (stone, steel plates…), convection and forced convection with tunnel, as well as vertical conveying. As a result, we can objectively recommend the most suitable solution to meet the product’s and the client’s requirements.   

 

Gouet has a particular expertise in the production of artisan bread (stone tunnel oven), viennoiserie (radiation tunnel oven), pizzas and delicatessen (forced convection turbo-jet oven), and baguettes (vertical oven).  

 

 What are the latest innovations at Gouet?

Some of our most recent innovations include the automatic brushing system of the stones, the automatic greasing system of the chains and easier access to important parts of the stone tunnel oven   

Our new loader has a 4 metre wide wing, which can deposit 192 ciabattas of 70x70mm onto the stones, inside the oven, directly under the steam zone.

We have also recently achieved the full automation of all settings of the baking line.