Paneton founder, Dominique Colombie learned the art of making pastry from his father, who’s Patesserie Colombie was an institution in the village of Montesquieu-Volvestre in South-west France.
He later met his future wife Celia Elder in Paris who also shared his love of French cuisine and both dreamt of having a business in New Zealand that was inspired by their passion for French baking.
In 1986 upon their return to New Zealand, the duo set up La Tarterie on Khyber Pass in Newmarket, Auckland specialising in savoury tartes (quiches) and sweet tartes like lemon and almond. Their hard work paid off, and with total customer focus and quality baking, their little café became extremely popular.
Today, Paneton is one of New Zealand’s leading French bakery’s combining the traditional French baking with the best ingredients from New Zealand.
They have built on their range of traditional French bread and patisseries by now offering the foodservice sector ‘Ready-to-Rise’ (frozen) pastries and ‘Ready-to-Bake’ (parbaked) breads for the convenience of customers anywhere in New Zealand.
Paneton currently have one retail outlet located on Halsey Street in Auckland’s CBD but supplying foodservice establishments is the main part of the business and sell a select range of pastries through Gilmores. Over the years staff and premises may have changed, but the core of Dominique and Celia’s bakery business has not. They currently employ around 40 people across two sites.
Dominque is always looking to the future to improve systems and technology in baking while managing to keep the business simple and concentrating on core products using quality ingredients and traditional recipes.
To order or for more information visit their website www.panetonbakery.co.nz.
