Lu, a Nantes Story

The history of the LU Biscuit Company starts with the arrival of Jean-Romain Lefèvre, a pâtissier from Varennes-en-Argonne, in Nantes in 1846. Jean-Romain was hired to work in a patisserie on Rue Boileau. In 1850, he married Pauline-Isabelle Utile, and the couple decided to buy the patisserie to turn it into a "Manufacturer of Reims cookies and bonbons." To begin with, the business remained modest and cookies were sold directly from the oven on a table in the patisserie's courtyard. Success came very quickly, and the couple opened a second store in 1854, under the business name Lefèvre-Utile. Following this, Jean-Romain received the gold medal at the Nantes Industrial Exhibition in 1822 in recognition of the quality of his cookies. But health problems struck the following year, leaving the company in the hands of his wife and youngest son, Louis Lefèvre-Utile.

Louis thus inherited an organization of 14 workers. Patisserie products were prized by the bourgeoisie, and, to meet ever-increasing demand, in 1881, Louis bought a former spinning factory on the Ile de la Madeleine, across from the Castle of the Dukes of Brittany and near the station. He could thus meet the main challenges facing a cookie factory in the 19th century. Imitating the English model that dominated the market, he modernized production tools by introducing mechanical production methods to the industry and acquired a brand-new English device—a steam engine. The factory regularly expanded to the point that it became a veritable city district.

On February 1, 1887, Louis Lefèvre-Utile joined forces with his brother-in-law Ernest Lefièvre and together, they officially founded the Lefèvre-Utile corporation. Ernest handled the management of the company and Louis devoted himself to production. The following year, a fire gutted the factory and Louis seized the opportunity to expand it, building workshops, offices, laboratories, ironworks, shops, storage spaces, stables, and a power station. At the beginning of the 20th century, LU had a catalog of 200 different cookies. LU cookies were sold in France, and exported from 1898 onwards, mainly to the Colonies.

Louis called first on local artists, then on artists in Paris and abroad. For example, he collaborated with Alphonse Mucha between 1896 and 1903. In 1903, Mucha created a portrait of Sarah Bernhardt for a LU advertisement. The company's advertisement paintings were true works of art. Inspired by Art Deco, they took the form of posters, mural advertisements painted on building gables, and billboards attached to streetcars or displayed at big events such as world fairs.

Ever looking to develop the company further, Louis Lefèvre-Utile took it to the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, for which he commissioned Auguste Bluysen to build a 118-foot (36-meter)-tall tower. Drawing inspiration from lighthouses, this tower became emblematic of the brand, as soon afterward, two towers would be built in Nantes. The idea behind these projects was to show that the company was a lighthouse for the city. Inside the pavilion, ceramics by Eugène Martial Simas decorated the walls in a resolutely Art Deco style.

At the outbreak of the World War I, the three main cookie manufacturers in Nantes—LU, Biscuiterie Nantaise (BN), and Biscuiterie de l'Union—were requisitioned to produce bread for military rations. The factories produced hard bread (cookies) made of flour and water. Contracts made with various administrations meant the LU and BN factories stayed open during the conflict. When the armistice was signed, the agreements were terminated, but new contracts were signed with the United States administration to produce sweet cookies.

World War II meant a return to the production of bread and cookies (bisquits) for military rations. Louis Lefèvre-Utile died in 1940 and his son Michel took over his place at the head of the factory in partnership with the Lefièvre and Binet families. Louis' death marked a new era in the company's history. Now in charge of the company, Michel improved the distribution network with the introduction of the container. He also put new packaging made of aluminum into circulation. But the lack of raw materials meant halting production of Petit-Beurre cookies first in April 1942, and then for a second time in June 1944. LU persisted in manufacturing products despite everything thanks to the military bread rations. In 1947, the company began receiving state assistance and modernized. A production battle was waged between the largest domestic cookie factories. In 1951, the Petit-Beurre production line was completely automated, the distribution network was improved, and new packaging came into circulation for export. Cookies were no longer a luxury item and LU produced them en masse.

In the early 1960s, in the face of the American products flooding onto the market, Michel Lefèvre-Utile suggested to his friend and counterpart Georges Cossé, head of BN, that they coordinate their industrial and commercial policies. At the end of the sixties, Patrick Lefèvre-Utile became head of the company, replacing his father, Michel. The financial situation at the factory was grim, and it became imperative that he create alliances with other French companies. It is for this reason that, in 1969, LU merged with Brun to become LU-Brun.

The former factory was left abandoned until the 1990s. Starting in 1988, the dispatch building, the front wall that was decorated with the Petit-Beurre, was restored. Ten years later, one of the two LU towers was restored. While LU has become a branch of the group Mondelez International, the former factory has now been converted into a live entertainment venue and is known as the Lieu Unique. Architect Patrick Bouchain sees it as being able to accommodate any type of performance. In 2004, the Nantes History Museum (Musée d'histoire de Nantes) received a significant donation from Lefèvre-Utile, enabling it to dedicate rooms to the agri-food industry and LU in particular.