Europastry

At Europastry’s factories, production rarely stops. Around the clock, thousands of croissants, ciabattas, loaves and more are baked, blast-chilled and shipped out to cafés, supermarkets and foodservice chains across over 80 countries, from the suburbs of Barcelona to Mexico City.

Behind every perfectly baked frozen good is a carefully orchestrated supply chain spanning five continents and packed with variables. Volume is a big challenge, but so is the delicate nature of frozen bakery goods, which require exact timing and specialized refrigerated transport and storage. Europastry’s customers demand flawless quality, swift delivery, and supply chain transparency, expecting the bakery’s longstanding passion for artisanal craftsmanship to translate into every single order.

“We create bakery solutions for all kinds of needs: retail, coffee chains, foodservice,” said Alejandro Ibáñez Lara, baker and IT business partner at Europastry. “That kind of trust doesn’t happen overnight. It requires a strong supply chain, advanced planning systems, and a deep commitment to customer satisfaction.”

As the company continues to grow, it became clear that legacy systems and intuition alone could no longer meet the demands of a complex, global food manufacturing supply chain. Planners struggled with slow, manual processes, siloed decision-making, and limited visibility, leading to excess inventory, inconsistent service levels and a lack of agility. Coordinating more than 4,000 stock keeping units across 27 factories required a smarter, more connected approach. And so Europastry turned to Dassault Systèmes and its advanced planning and scheduling solution, DELMIA Ortems, marking the beginning of a fundamental shift in how the company manages supply chain planning at every level.

“We needed a robust system that could bring agility, visibility and precision to our supply chain,” Lara said. “Today, DELMIA Ortems is helping us build a more intelligent, resilient supply chain so we can serve our customers with confidence.”

Today, Europastry’s facilities across Spain, Germany, Romania, the United States and Mexico use DELMIA Ortems. The digital transformation covers three major planning areas: master planning for long-term strategy, scheduling for daily factory operations, and raw material planning with an outlook that now extends up to 16 weeks into the future. This extended view allows Europastry to spot potential issues well in advance, whether that’s a raw material shortage or a spike in demand, and respond with agility.

“Raw materials planning has seen one of the biggest improvements,” Lluc said. “Previously, factories had visibility of only three to four weeks. Now, they can see 16 weeks ahead, giving them plenty of time to react and plan properly, which ultimately leads to better service.”

Frozen products come with their own challenges. They require specific warehouse conditions and refrigerated transport, which is more expensive and less flexible than regular goods. That means Europastry must be especially careful with how and where it moves products.

Europastry’s technology consultant, SEIDOR, led the integration of DELMIA Ortems with the bakery’s existing ERP system, tailoring the solution to fit the company’s specific planning needs. Its proven expertise and dedicated team were key to a smooth and successful implementation. Now, at headquarters, these combined systems give Europastry’s central team an accurate, real-time view of what’s happening across the business, such as where production capacity is available, where materials are short, logistics requirements, and how planning decisions influence the supply chain.

“The planning solution is fully integrated with our forecasting tools and enterprise resource planning system,” Lluc said. “That means all planning-related tools update automatically. Everyone across the manufacturing operation can see all production orders and stock levels, based on real-time data. Now, when we say we’ll produce on a certain date, we can stick to it because we know we have what we need.” 

Since it was founded in 1987, Europastry has grown from a local bakery into a global player in frozen baked goods, supplying more than 600 distributors across Europe, North America and beyond. Until recently, the company’s factories operated with a high degree of autonomy, relying on spreadsheets and local expertise to manage demand forecasts, raw material flows and production scheduling. Everyone had a slightly different method, and visibility across factories was limited.

“Our catalog has over 4,000 items, and we aim to deliver to customers within 24 to 48 hours,” said Ignacio Rodríguez Lluc, baker and supply chain planning manager at Europastry. “To do that, we need the right stock levels in the right places. Moving to DELMIA Ortems allowed us to automate and standardize planning. Now, everyone can access real-time data and see each production line’s status, capacity and stock needs. We went from a reactive, manual approach to a proactive, automated one.”

The platform improved coordination between departments. Sales, planning and procurement now speak the same language, one based on facts, not assumptions. The switch to data-driven planning also opened up insights that weren’t possible before.

“Before DELMIA Ortems, we often heard from factories that they didn’t have enough space for raw materials,” Lluc said. “However, the real problem wasn’t physical space; it was visibility and we solved it with real-time data insights. Now, planners can accurately assess inventory and optimize storage, improving resource utilization and reducing unnecessary stock movement.”

Rolling out DELMIA Ortems wasn’t just about upgrading systems. The wider digital transformation also relied on a shift in mindset across the company. For planners used to their own methods, switching to a standardized platform required trust and patience. Dassault Systèmes and Europastry saw their expertise as an asset, bringing them in from the start and pairing their knowledge of local operations with DELMIA Ortems’ capabilities to help build a virtual twin of the operation.

“We have experienced professionals with deep expertise in their own tools and methods,” Lara said. “Rather than replacing that knowledge, we focused on empowering them, tailoring the training to their specific roles and demonstrated quick wins to build trust.”

One of those early successes was the ability to instantly calculate raw material shortages – a task that used to take hours. Once planners saw the benefits and could see that DELMIA Ortems was there to support them, adoption came naturally. “Now, no one wants to return to the old way of working,” Lluc said.

Today, DELMIA Ortems supports Europastry’s ambition to compete globally while staying agile locally. Planning models are standardized across factories, but flexibility to respond to specific operational needs is inherent at each location.

The result is a smarter, faster and more transparent supply chain that’s built for scale but grounded in the day-to-day realities of modern food manufacturing.

“DELMIA Ortems has become a strategic tool for Europastry,” Lara said. “After rolling it out to several plants, I can say with confidence that it has made us more competitive in the global market.”