Chef Michael Gagne's 72-layer Cream Cheese Biscuits Hit The Big Time

Biscuits from Maine's Gagne Foods Hit Bi-Coastal Distribution Mark

Maine-made Biscuits Picked up by Saks Fifth Avenue, Dean & DeLuca, MacKenzie Ltd. and Growing List of Catalogs for National Distribution

Chef Michael Gagn's Robinhood Free Meetinghouse 72-layer Cream Cheese Biscuits and Cinnamon Rolls (www.gagnefoods.com) have achieved bi-coastal distribution, with additional expansion rapidly underway. Gagn's family-run biscuit facility in Bath, Maine is now meeting orders for over 500 high-profile markets and specialty stores from coast to coast, including Whole Foods Markets, Wild Oats, Hannaford, Earth Fare, Vitamin Cottage, and Costco.

Most recently, Gagne's award-winning, made-from-scratch biscuits also hit the shelves at Metropolitan Markets in Seattle, bakery departments at Kowalski's locations in Minnesota, and Treasure Island Foods throughout greater Chicago. Biscuit lovers down south can now buy Gagn's pr! oducts at Harris Teeter's supermarkets in southern states, as well.

A growing collection of high-profile catalogs and online vendors also are offering Gagn's biscuits. In addition to Saks Fifth Avenue, Stonewall Kitchen, Dean & DeLuca and Mackenzie Ltd, Michigan-based American Spoon Foods and Virginia-based Smithfield Marketplace have signed on for distribution, as well as regional food businesses such as MaineFoodie.com and a variety of specialty stores.

Gagn launched his biscuit enterprise four years ago with his all-natural, light and flaky Robinhood Free Meetinghouse Classic 72-layer Cream Cheese Biscuits. The biscuit operation has moved from its humble beginnings in the back kitchen of Gagn's nationally renowned Robinhood Free Meetinghouse restaurant (www.robinhood-meetinghouse.com) to its current home at the Gagn Foods expanded production facility.

The company's Classic 72-layer Cream Cheese Biscuits earned the presti! gious title of Best Baked Good at last year's NASFT 52nd ! annual F ancy Food Show in New York, beating out several hundred competitors from across the country. The talented chef has since added to his growing product line by introducing his popular Five Herb Parmesan biscuits, as well as his sweet Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls.

Along the way, Gagn's biscuits have earned press in a growing number of outlets including The Boston Globe and TASTE of the Seacoast magazine, which named the product an "Editor's Pick" earlier this year. The biscuits also were labeled "a buttery, flaky piece of heaven" by The Nibble: Great Food Finds. "'Michael Gagn's Robinhood Free Meetinghouse Biscuits' may be a long name for a small piece of bread, but as with other champions, this biscuit can carry it," according to the feature. "As breads go, these biscuits are not just the staff of life - they're Fred Astaire's walking stick."

Projected sales by year's end are $! 1 million, with $2 million planned by Q4, 2008. During the product's growth, the Gagn Foods team has been able to keep pace with demand through its expanded facilities.

"The new equipment we've brought in allows us to make the same high-quality biscuits more quickly, and is helping us keep pace with customer and market demand," according to Gagn. "This is definitely an exciting time of growth for our business, and we're thrilled by how quickly word has spread. We've been able to ramp up our production methods in our new plant, but we're still able to use the same high-quality ingredients that our biscuits and cinnamon rolls have become known for."

The biscuit company's expansion through catalog distribution has been key, according to Gagn. "Our sales through catalogs represented 22 percen