Warburtons’ bread loaves are set to land on supermarket shelves in France this year.

Despite the bread brand’s recent delisting in Sainsbury’s 440 Local stores, Warburtons is set to make one of its biggest export deals in its history. As part of the Bolton-based bakery’s extensive roll-out programme throughout Europe, three varieties of its bread loaves will appear in around 100 supermarkets in Paris and the surrounding area.

Warburtons additionally told British Baker that it would be activating its tourist plan imminently aimed at Spain, which will involve distributing its wrapped bread to retailers in Malaga, Alicante and the Balearic Islands.

Jonathan Warburton, chairman at Warburtons, said in an interview with The Sun: “I can’t wait to see a Warbies truck going down the Champs-Elysées — I wouldn’t care if there wasn’t any bread in it! We are as British a business as you could find.

“We employ people almost exclusively in Britain apart from one person in the Czech Republic. But I’ve learnt over my career if you stand still you go backwards all the time. We are as desperate to grow the business as my dad was 25 years ago.”

British Baker reported back in October 2011 that the British bread business was trialling its products via Tesco stores in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary to support the “growing demand for wholesome and quality wrapped bread across Europe”.

The company released a statement, which said: "Over the last ten months, we’ve been tracking the project and are pleased with the initial progress which has been made. The products have been well received and the quality is the best in the market.

"Feedback from our partner, Tesco, has also been positive. In fact, in December 2011 they reaffirmed their commitment to forming a long-term partnership. Our presence in these markets is enabling them to improve the quality of the bakery category – using our high quality standards as a benchmark/cataylst for local producers. This is a long-term project for our family business."