Our story

At Avi-Charente, we have been devoting ourselves for over forty years to making authentic and modern desserts for our customers’ delight. Three core values bring our staff together: team spirit, flexibility, and commitment. These values keep us on track in our day-to-day mission. “Enchanter l'instant” has become the creed and foundation of our company culture. In this state of mind, we warmly welcome you on our site.

To begin, let’s go over our know-how, both past and present.

1970s

Avi-Charente was founded in St-Jean d’Angély by an egg producer collective that wanted to diversify its activity by producing egg-based desserts. The first dessert in our range was "l'oeuf au lait" ("baked egg custard").

1980s

"Rice pudding" and "semolina pudding" were added to our range.

1990s

Our cornerstone product, "l'île flottante", came into being. It was the 1st "île flottante" made with fresh eggs to be sold in refrigerated aisles of supermarkets. It was awarded the Gold medal at the Paris agricultural competition in 1997.

Our range of "egg-based cream dessert" was developed, which included "Chestnut cream", "Crème brûlée", and "Crema catalana". Thanks to a new cold-caramelization process, which received the IAA-SIAL R&D award in 1994, some of these desserts can be served chilled or hot.

Willing to diversify of our activity, a range of more "pastry-like desserts", such as clafoutis, soufflés, and small charlottes was developed, followed by a "creative rice pudding range" including an "empress rice pudding with raspberry sauce" and a "rum raisin fluffy rice pudding".

2000s

Development of our pastry-like dessert range: a "chocolate cake" (awarded product of the year 2004), a coconut cake, a lemon-meringue pie (the 1st pie to be sold in the refrigerated aisles in supermarkets) and "soufflés" designed to be reheated in microwave ovens (apple-vanilla and pear-vanilla).

Expansion of our "île flottante" range with lemon and flaked almond recipes

Creativity in our rice and semolina pudding range (fluffy semolina pudding on an apricot base) and our egg-based cream desserts

2010s

Creation of the 1st production line exclusively devoted to soy-based yoghurts and desserts

Leadership in the chilled soy desserts market in Spain

Expansion of our plant-based range in order to stay in line with these promising markets.

2020s

Development of our know-how on new product categories:

- Dessert cream and mousses on a new production line mainly dedicated to single format packaging 250g-500g.

- COCO Plant-based desserts : "yogurts" and rice pudding.

Our key information
Location: Aytré, near La Rochelle, France

Staff: 250 employees

2021 turnover: €55 million