Le Petit Outre named microbusiness of the year

By any measurement, the handcrafted bakery Le Petit Outre has come a long way in four years.

By Michael Moore- Missoulian

At the start, it was just owners Leif and Susan Bjelland. Leif worked all night and into the morning baking breads and pastries, sleeping in short stints in the afternoon. Today, the bakery on South Fourth Street has 23 employees.

Back then, Bjelland could barely get a loan. now, with 50 solid customers- mostly restaurants and bakeries- loans aren’t a problem. In the next year, the bakery should see gross revenues of $1 million.

"It was extremely tricky in the beginning." Bjelland said Wednesday. "We had a good business plan, but it was really hard to get financing with an actual business past behind us."

"Bjelland started with a Small Business Administration loan from First Interstate Bank, but soon realized the bakery would have a cash-flow problem. The bank didn’t want to loan more money, so Bjelland started talking with the Montana Community Development Corp. MCDC http://www.mtcdc.org/ a private, nonprofit corporation, makes loans to fledgling businesses that don’t qualify for more traditional loans.

"Without that, we wouldn’t be here," Bjelland said.

In recognition of the bakery’s growth, Le Petit Outre won the state Department of Commerce’s microbusiness of the year award earlier this week. Bjelland was in Helena on Tuesday to receive a plaque from Gov. Judy Martz.

"It’s pretty nice to get the recognition," Bjelland said.

The award winner is selected by the statewide Mircobusiness Advisory Council, whose members are appointed by the governor. The council represents the state’s eight microbusiness finance centers, which were started in 1991 and initially financed with money from the coal tax trust fund, according to Billie lee, who heads the council and is executive director of the Lake County Community Development Corp.

"For the award, we’re looking at how they’ve grown, how many jobs have been created, how they’ve built net worth," Lee said, "We also look at how they fit into the community."

Le Petit Outre is, for the most part, a wholesale bakery, although its walk-up retail business has prospered recently with promising coffee and pastry sales.

"We didn’t really anticipate that, but it’s been good for us," said Bjelland, who’s also profited from selling high-end olive oil. "We don’t want to try to do too many things, but I like what we’ve done so far. We’ve come a long way."

A long way indeed. In the late 1990’s, Bjelland was working in a bakery in Portland, Ore., learning all aspects of the business. That experience armed the Kalispell native with the expertise to run a bakery, but he still needed money to get off the ground.

"I really wanted to come back to Montana and I had a really good business plan," he said. "We’re just fortunate that we could get the financing we needed to get off the ground. It’s really tough when you don’t have a track record."

Reporter Michael Moore can be reached at 523-5252 or at [email protected]

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(Be sure to join in a celebration of this award at the bakery on Tuesday 4/2-

Celebration Honoring Le Petit Outre & Breads As Micro Business Of
The Year For The State Of Montana
12:00 PM
Le Petit Outre, 129 S. 4th W.
Celebration honoring Le Petit Outre & Breads as Micro Business of the
Year for the state of Montana

Honored Guests

¨ Missoula County Commissioners

¨ Mayor Mike Kadas

¨ Bob Burns, First Interstate Bank Loan Officer

¨ Le Petit Outre staff

April 2, 2002

12 p.m. to 1 p.m.

Le Petit Outre, 129 S. 4th W.

Music by the Hellgate Jazz Band

Sponsored by MT Community Development Corporation 728-9234 X200
Contact: MT Community Development Corporation 728-9234 X200