Annick van Overstraeten (ex-Lunch Garden) becomes CEO at Le Pain Quotidien

Annick van Overstraeten becomes top executive of the “new” Le Pain Quotidien. For ten years Van Overstraeten was CEO of Lunch Garden, now she has to take care of the restart of the bakery-restaurants.

Head of Le Pain Quotidien bis

After being thanked at the end of May for her services at Lunch Garden, closing a period of ten years leading the restaurant chain, Annick van Overstraeten has already found a new challenge: she will now shape the new start of Le Pain Quotidien.

After a judicial reorganisation and the divestment of loss-making foreign branches in the United States and the United Kingdom, Le Pain Quotidien is making a restart in a new company: Le Pain Quotidien bis. This new structure will now also have a new management.

Back to the core

Together with the shareholders, investor groups M80 and Cobepa but also founder Alain Coumont, Annick van Overstraeten is developing a strategy that focuses on “food, customers and franchising”. The focus will again be on the core markets Belgium, France and – out of necessity – Great Britain.

So first consolidate, before looking at new expansion, Peter Maenhout, CEO of M80, says to L’Echo: “When opportunities arise, we will look at them, but in a controlled way. We have the resources, we have given the company capital for that”.

The new top woman is already happy with her new task: “Le Pain Quotidien is a strong brand with an extraordinary image. It is also one of the few brands that has made a name for itself abroad. I dreamed of working for Le Pain Quotidien”, she says.