Plant bread baker Warburtons has said au revoir to the French bread market – after it decided to stop selling its Le Toastie loaf there.

Last summer it started selling long life white, brown and seeded loaves - marketed as “the everyday English bread” - in more than 200 supermarkets across the Channel.

However, the Bolton-based company told The Grocer, a sister-title to British Baker, that: “It was not cost effective to continue to produce and distribute the extended shelf life range solely for France.”

The decision follows Warburtons’ exit from Eastern Europe at the end of last year.

Its bread products were listed in Tesco stores in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland for a year, but the baker pulled out because of high transport costs and a lack of suitable manufacturing partners in the region.

As part of its export push, Warburtons also developed a frozen range that is selling successfully to expats in Spain and elsewhere.