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In 1958 Andre Drucker borrowed £1000 and opened a continental coffee lounge - La Boheme - on the site of an old bookshop in Aston Street, Birmingham.
Frustrated that he could not buy good cakes he then decided that what Birmingham needed was a coffee and cake shop along the lines of those in Vienna.
A tiny shop in the cosmopolitan suburb of Moseley became available and he converted the rear into a bakery and fitted out the front with a counter and three small tables. He recruited a master baker from Hamelin in Germany and on 6 October 1964, we opened our doors to our first customers.
At first people were bewildered by the exotic appearance of the cakes and alarmed that one slice of something called Schwarzwalderkirschtorte could cost as much as six iced buns. It was only when more people began to take their holidays abroad that they recognised what they saw through Druckers shop window.
Our business has since grown steadily and now has 40 stores nationwide, all offering a wide selection of mouth watering patisserie, savoury products and great coffee.
Andre Drucker's legacy is maintained with great pride. Druckers products are made by highly skilled people in a well equipped bakery. The cafes feature unique artwork, often with a humorous reference to various aspects of the business, and in general the philosophy of providing the customer with a special treat remains as important as ever.
Druckers and Patisserie Valerie
Early in 2007 Druckers joined forces with Patisserie Valerie. Both companies share the same belief and pride in the quality of hand-made authentic continental pastries and confectionary. So the synergy between the two made the merger a fairly logical one. The opportunity of being able to offer the 'customer experience' further a field throughout the country was an irresistible one.
Both companies can trace their roots back through several generations of Viennese and Belgian ancestry. This is evident today in the production methods and variety of the patisserie product range on offer in each location.
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