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After Starbucks announced it was closing all La Boulange stores last year, the fast casual bakery is assembling itself once again, reports QSR. There are now five stores in the San Francisco Bay Area, plus more in the works.

Back in the summer of 2012, Starbucks purchased La Boulange for $100 million and named the bakery’s founder, Pascal Rigo, the vice president of food at Starbucks. It was a big move for Starbucks, trying to enter the baking realm as much as they dominated the coffee industry. Fortunately, closing the stores didn’t tarnish the coffee retailer and bakery's relationship. “I love Starbucks. They are a fantastic company,” Rigo told QSR.

The bakery is now rebranding itself with the new name La Boulangerie de San Francisco. “For me,” says Rigo, “it’s not about how big we can get. It’s about, are we going to be the right kind of company that stays true to what we’ve started.”

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Nick Powills

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Nick Powills

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Nick Powills, CFE, founded No Limit Agency in 2008 and serves as Chief Brand Strategist for the Chicago-based firm. No Limit is a full-service communications agency that establishes and elevates brands by bridging Public Relations, Social Media, Marketing, Advertising, Digital, and a lot of creativity, to best strategize well-rounded and successful campaigns for 50+ global franchise brands. By presenting visionary ideas and building real relationships, No Limit is able to create effective media branding strategies to help companies grow. Nick currently leads a staff of writers, media strategists, designers, social media experts and digital producers in an office think-tank where brands are humanized for strong, compelling media stories. Prior to starting No Limit at the age of 27, Nick spent four years working at a franchise PR agency where he mastered the art of building rapport with media outlets and creating newsworthy pitches for earned media placements. He holds a Bachelor of Journalism from Drake University in Iowa.

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