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Th e World’ s billio na ir e s

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FrancIs older wasn’t going to Ladurée for their macarons,” he admits. But he
sure loved the baba au rhum pastry, despite not drinking alco-
times more than at the start of the decade. Holder’s experience hol. So when Ladurée’s heirs wanted to cash out, Holder was
left him better prepared for growth this time. To cope with the first person they asked.
high rents, he opened small retail locations without full kitch- At the time, he was in the market for a diversion. When he
ens and supplied them from a centralized bakery, delivering turned 51—the age his father died—he begged his oldest son,
fresh loaves three times a day. That way, he avoided having to David, to apprentice in case he should die. David accepted and
prebake or freeze bread—common among Hol der’s competi- spent the next two years working 15-hour days and losing 15
tors, like Louis Le Duff (No. 822 on the Billionaires list, worth pounds. When he emerged from his apprenticeship, David
$2.9 billion). started pushing his father to retire. And Francis realized that
With the Paul brand thriving—so much so that the head of acquiring Ladurée, and sidelining David to run it, gave Francis
McDonald’s Europe tried to acquire it, with plans to increase more time for Paul and Château Blanc.
growth from 80 openings a year to 2,500—Hol der was ready Going from brunch regular to boss, 25-year-old David
to go back to building the bread factory of his dreams, but supplemented Ladurée’s four flavors of macarons with a sea-
with an important twist. “Some companies are interested in sonal menu, including passion fruit and salted caramel. In
producing a lot, without quality,” he says. “Moving away from 1997, Ladurée opened a 14,000-square-foot flagship on the
the craft was never a question.” Champs-Élysées. The first international location opened in
Building on what he learned in America, he spent mil- 2005 at Harrod’s in London, followed by Tokyo and the U.S.
two years later.
The more ubiquitous the macaron became, the
more David faced a knockoff problem. He respond-
MAcAroon vs. MAcAron vs. MAcron ed by positioning Ladurée as a bakery-inspired luxu-
ry lifestyle brand with a product line that included $65
candles (the first scent was brioche), $75 fragrances
with atomizers and $20 boxes of teas.
While Ladurée took the high ground, Francis saw
the macaron’s mass-market potential and grew bull-
ish on the cookie. “It wasn’t a trend at all,” he recalls.
“Then we said to ourselves, ‘Why don’t we make mac-
Macaroon Macaron Macron
(mak-uh-roon) noun (mah-kuh-ron) noun (mah-kron) noun arons in Paul bakeries and elsewhere?’ From that
point, it became huge”—literally and metaphorical-
A cookie made with A meringue-based The 25th president
egg whites, sugar, cookie made with of France, elected ly. One petite macaron, about an inch wide, costs
and ground almonds almond flour, egg May 7, 2017. about $3. Paul locations in France started selling larg-
or coconut. whites and sugar, with er macarons in 2005, and international stores adopt-
a ganache filling.
ed them soon after. Château Blanc had gone all in by
2007, when it built the automated macaron produc-
tion line in Lille, the first in the world. It was just in
lions on designing customized machines that would assemble time for McDonald’s in France to launch its McCafé version
the products the same way a baker would by hand. For crois- the next year. Today’s Château Blanc macarons are in more
sants, the machine rolls out dough and spreads butter onto than 300 McDonald’s in Europe. Then came similar white-la-
each piece. The layers are then stacked to make the flaky pas- bel offerings for American customers—such as a limited-edi-
try. But these assembly lines don’t change the amount of time tion run at Starbucks and a line at Sam’s Club.
the dough needs to set (especially necessary for breads that The gamble paid off. Over the past decade, the maca-
ferment with yeast) and cook. That was an important lesson ron has replaced the cupcake as the pastry du jour in Amer-
from Holder’s days baking with his father; most food compa- ica, where there are nine Ladurée locations (run by Holder’s
nies have scaled up quickly by adding preservatives or chemi- 45-year-old daughter, Elisabeth, from New York) and 12 Paul
cals that cut the length of time and increase production with- shops (overseen by Paul International’s head, 48-year-old son
out adding storage demand. Maxime, from London). Under Maxime, Paul has added over left to right: shotshoP gmbh/alamy/ istock/getty images/ chesnot/getty images
250 stores outside France.
Though macarons minT money for his company, Holder says And despite more than 60 years as a baker, Holder remains
he still doesn’t really enjoy eating them. “I love flaky pastries,” hungry. He dreams of opening a Château Blanc factory in the
he says with a shrug. His fortuitous foray into pastel cook- United States, where he hopes to replicate his success in Eu-
ies began 25 years ago when he purchased Ladurée, the 19th- rope. “In France, people tend to forget that when we become
century Parisian tea salon known for its gilded dining room successful, it is because we are brave,” Holder says of his all-
and pastel ceiling frescoes. The Holders were Saturday regu- American ambition. “In the United States, someone who takes
lars, snacking on tea sandwiches and mushroom omelettes. “I risks and succeeds is a hero.” F

72 | FORBES MARCH 31, 2018