Landert Bread’s European rolls, bread, cakes and pastries will be available to more Naples area residents starting this month. A wholesale operation for more than 12 years, Naples-based Landert is launching a retail store in Collier County.
Landert has been a wholesaler to more than 100 local businesses such as hotels, restaurants, country clubs, senior residences, caterers and specialized food stores, but its baked goods have been available for retail sale only at farmers markets in the Naples area, particularly the Saturday market at the Shoppes at Vanderbilt in North Naples. Landert’s retail store will be at 4440 Domestic Ave., Unit 2, next door to Paloma Blanca Cuba Cafe in the East Naples industrial park between Airport-Pulling and Livingston roads.
“It was office space that we transformed into the bakery store,” said Alexandra Landert, daughter of Landert Bread founders Jürg and Leslie Landert.
“Since 2012, we’ve just done markets and the rest is wholesale. We’ve been thinking about a store for a while, but it didn’t happen until it all kind of aligned this past summer when we found a spot that would work, and it’s nice combining the wholesale with the retail and finally being able to serve the public. We’ve been in the community of Southwest Florida, but now we’ll be in more of the community, and we’re very excited about that.”
Landert Bread is more of a retailer than a bakery. The products sold are shipped to the business from Europe either as raw dough or they are par-baked or fully baked, Landert said.
“Everything is made for us in Europe and then we shock freeze — which is different from regular frozen products — to preserve the nutritional value and the quality of the products. We don’t use artificial ingredients or preservatives, and everything is GMO-free,” Landert said.
The bakers import European dough and baked goods to obtain products with clean ingredients and traditional flavors and recipes from countries such as France, Germany and Switzerland.
“We’re focused a lot on natural bread with no preservatives. That’s why we bring it over,” Landert said. “I was born and raised in Switzerland. My dad is all Swiss. When we moved here in 2009, we missed the bread and the clean ingredients in bread and pastries. That’s when we started importing all of it.”
The Landerts cite multiple reasons why European bread is so different and better than most of the bread made in the United States, starting with basic ingredients such as flour and water. Flour grown and produced in Europe is less powdery and not gene-manipulated; the water in Europe contains more minerals than in Florida. With recipes perfected and passed down through generations, the European products also tend to be more easily digested by consumers with gluten sensitivities.
“We have a lot of people come to the markets who have not eaten bread for 20 years in the States, but they go to Europe and they can eat it,” Landert said. “So, they come to us and they’re like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is incredible. I can eat the bread and all that stuff.’”
Landert thinks popular items at the new store will be French croissants, protein bread and rustic breads such as ancient grain and Kalamata olive bread. “We have macarons and chocolate croissants; we do petits fours and cakes and sweets. There are so many options,” she said.
Other products available include Parisian baguettes, brioche, beignets, German pretzels, Bavarian apple strudel, sourdough bread, cheesecake and muffins.
“People love the butter pretzel triangle. It’s a butter croissant but the outside is a pretzel,” Landert said.
Every product that Landert serves or sells is carefully selected after searching for quality items that look and taste the best. For instance, its baguettes come from Ferrières-en-Brie, a little town outside Paris.
Once the store settles into a routine, Landert expects to offer business-to-business service. For instance, local office managers and event coordinators could pre-order dozens of croissants for morning deliveries.
While the hours and days of operation are not yet set, Landert is looking at possibly being open 8 a.m. to noon Tuesday through Friday. Also under consideration is eventually opening on weekends, but not immediately.
“It kind of depends on what people want,” she said.
The Landert business remains a family operation, but they have hired a couple of retail associates to help out at the store and they may hire more.
“It’s the first time we’re doing retail and working with the community, so we are kind of learning as we go, as well, with this new venture,” she said. “It’s just me, my mom and dad, and my brother [Oliver] does the farmers markets. We want to keep the family feel, so whoever comes will be an extension of the family.”
The website for the new retail store is landertbreadstore.com.
