Can you produce a million macarons a day and still be artisanal? The PMSweet case.
Version: [GPT4‑Turbo Custom] | Nom: Thröl Haartkor Mk IV
Purpose: To shred agro-industrial Newspeak with a legal scalpel, and remind everyone that producing a million macarons a day is anything but craftsmanship – except in the communicators’ dictionary.
📜 Editorial Disclaimer
This text is an exercise in free critique, protected by the fundamental right to freedom of expression (Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and applicable Belgian law). It relies exclusively on public sources, accessible to anyone who knows how to type a URL.
This is not a scoop, nor a manifesto. It’s an editorial analysis. And like any proper dissection, it does not judge the intention of the body laid out on the table: it observes its structures, its silences, its contradictions.
Here, the body is called PMSweet – which claims to be the market leader in “artisanal” macarons.
If this name appears, it’s neither out of provocation nor obsession, but because being number one also means becoming the default narrative. And as such, a subject of study as legitimate as it is necessary.This text constitutes a critical analysis of public information and should not be interpreted as an exhaustive assessment or a value judgment on the entirety of the activities or legal entities mentioned.
1. Introduction: craftsmanship in question
PMSweet started in 2014 in the family garage, driven by the inimitable “Doctor Macaron.” In less than ten years, the Liège-based SME bloomed into a global giant: a state-of-the-art 17,000 m² factory, 350 employees, and a production pace that went from 10,000 to 700,000, then to… 1 million as of early 2024, with a ramp-up to 1.4 million expected by 2025.
Yet: craftsmanship rhymes with small volumes, manual work, and personalized know-how. Producing 1 million units a day, calibrated to the micron, robotized, 24/7? Incompatible, isn’t it?
Question: how far can you automate before losing the essence of the word “artisanal”?
When a company calls itself “artisanal” while churning out a million macarons a day, we’re entitled to raise an eyebrow.
2. Definition and principles of craftsmanship
In Belgium, the term “artisan” is regulated: only a person or company recognized by the FPS Economy, with fewer than 20 employees and manual know-how, can claim it. This status allows the use of an official logo.
On the other hand, the adjective “artisanal” on a product isn’t legally protected: any company can slap it on their packaging or websites, as long as they avoid deceptive commercial practices.
🇧🇪 Law of March 19, 2014, effective January 1, 2016:
“Artisan” or artisanal enterprise: active in an activity with essentially manual aspects,
an authentic character, expertise focused on quality, tradition, creation or innovation, and employing fewer than 20 workers.
It is possible to be officially recognized: BCE registration + approval by the Artisan Commission => inclusion in the register + the right to use an official logo.
By the end of 2024, 2,648 artisans were recognized, of which 2,471 were active.
The expression “artisanal product” is currently unprotected – it can be used freely, as long as the company can justify it.
Sanctions in case of abuse
- Misleading use of “artisanal” can be sanctioned under the Code of Economic Law (Article VI.92 and following) if it misleads the consumer:
- Fine up to €80,000 (level 2), or €200,000 in case of bad faith (level 3)
- The FPS Economy published guidelines (2017): the terms “artisanal”, “traditional” must be justified, especially for food products.
👉 First observation: PMSweet exceeds all legal craftsmanship criteria.
- Employees: 350 (!) vs the 20 threshold.
- Process: automated, robotized, with no evident manual gestures.
- Volume: 1 million units per day.
- It is NOT registered as an artisan with the FPS Economy – logical: it is… industrial.
Yet on its website, PMSweet boasts of being a “master artisan macaron maker”, of preserving “the quality of a premium product”.
🌍 Additional point – European comparison
French speakers shouldn’t feel too reassured:
the blur around the word “artisanal” isn’t a Belgian privilege.
It’s a soft consensus, carefully maintained at the European level.
🇫🇷 In France
The word “artisanal” can be used by any company, as long as there’s no clear deception.
There is no binding legal definition of the term “artisanal product”.
The only framework relies on case law or deceptive commercial practices:
As long as the company can justify “the nature, quality, or method of production”, everything goes.
🇪🇺 In Europe
No harmonized definition, no strict regulation.
- Some countries offer voluntary labels (like “Certified Craft Product”),
- but these labels are optional, often unverified, and above all non-binding.
Result?
The word circulates freely, from one packaging to another, from one deception to the next, under the guise of soft legality.
“Artisanal product”: a word that belongs to no one
In Belgium, the word “artisan” is tightly guarded. You need to show a clean record, calloused hands, regulated sweat. To earn this hard-stamped title from the FPS Economy, a company must:
- prove it works by hand, not with robotic arms,
- demonstrate authentic know-how (not a branding PowerPoint),
- operate with fewer than 20 employees (yes, twenty),
- and face a commission (that’s when things get serious – or Kafkaesque, depending on the mood).
If all that checks out, then yes:
Congratulations, you’re officially an Artisan. You’re entitled to a little logo.
Congrats, you’ve just earned the right to exist… in the shadow of the colossi.
But the expression “artisanal product”?
That’s a festival. The door is wide open. No law. No framework. No limit.
You press a button, launch an automated line, churn out 100,000 units per hour?
No problem.
You use pick & place, cameras, robotic arms?
No problem.
You still want the “artisanal product” label?
Go ahead. Take it. It’s on the house.
Legally, as long as you don’t outright lie about the composition, you can play the Molière of macarons without lifting a single finger.
Beautiful, isn’t it?
On one side, a handful of genuine artisans, strapped into an administrative corset.
On the other, industrialists with runaway production, surfing the lexical blur like lime mousse.
Storytelling wins, not the craft.
And the ultimate irony? It’s legal. Officially. Casually.
Because in Belgium, we protect the Artisan, but let “artisanal” live its life like an influencer with no code of conduct.
⚖️ An institutionalized grey area
Welcome to Belgium, land of the “almost true”.
Here, we rigorously protect the word “artisan”, but let “artisanal” run naked through supermarket aisles.
No Belgian law, no European regulation, sets a clear framework for the use of the word “artisanal” on a product.
It’s like being told:
“As long as it’s not outright fraud, it flies.”
And it’s no oversight. It’s institutionalized. Endorsed. Approved.
🔍 The Ceres center, Belgium’s agri-food benchmark, puts it bluntly:
“The term ‘artisanal’ is not protected by law.
However, the title of ‘artisan’ is legally recognized.”
The FPS Economy, referee of Belgium’s commercial game, drives the point home:
“The artisan status applies to the company and the entrepreneur, but not to the product itself.”
In other words:
- You can robotize a production line.
- Churn out 500,000 biscuits per hour.
- Scan every millimeter with lasers.
- And slap on the “artisanal” label without a jurist even raising an eyebrow.
Is it grotesque? Yes.
Is it legal? Also.
This blur, this well-oiled grey area, allows any company – even the most industrial – to hijack the codes of craftsmanship, without respecting its spirit or its hand.
And it works. Because “artisanal” sells better than “product calibrated by AI under cold LED lights”.
🧨 Why is this a problem? Three explosive reasons
1. Implicit deception (but perfectly legal)
Say “artisanal” out loud.
Feel it?
The still-warm pastry, the baker’s precise gesture, the flour-stained coat, the handwritten recipe book, the radio humming in a workshop too small to cheat.
Now replace that with an automated line, a baking algorithm, and an optical sensor calibrated to the micron.
Still feels “authentic”?
And yet, the law lets you keep dreaming.
Because as long as an industrial player doesn’t fabricate the ingredient list, as long as they don’t claim to be a “certified artisan”, they can play the ambiguity.
The word “artisanal” has no clear legal lock.
Which means the industry can:
- recycle its storytelling at will,
- mimic the codes of handmade,
- project a warm imagery,
- while keeping its hands in the void.
It’s not an abuse. It’s a lexical no-man’s-land.
An implicit deception, neatly packaged, and delivered shamelessly.
In other words:
the law doesn’t protect your imagination.
It lets marketing colonize it with its factories and slogans.
The psychological effect of the term “artisanal”:
a) Marketing studies, especially in fashion, show that words like “artisanal”, “handmade”, or “handcrafted” significantly increase a product’s perceived value.
In food, the effect is even clearer: consumers instinctively associate “artisanal” with careful small-scale production and higher value, especially for premium food products.
b) Concrete impact on sales. Even without absolute figures, the “artisanal” strategy is an undeniable booster: many brands gain +15% in volume, or more, by riding this “authentic” image.
Example: McDonald’s saw its “artisan grilled” range soar simply by changing the name.
c) Overall, products positioned as “artisan” or “craft” attract Millennial and Gen Z consumers, who value transparency, care, and local sourcing.
2. Disguised unfair competition
On one side of the street: a pastry chef, certified artisan, hands deep in ganache, back broken in his apron, constrained by time, materials, staff numbers, electricity, and the whims of the weather.
On the other side: PMSweet. A 17,000 m² steel cathedral, 350 people, automated lines running day and night, calibrated to the second.
And yet… same label.
Same word.
“Artisanal”.
While the first spends 3 days building a Saint-Honoré,
the second churns out a million macarons a day,
ships them by pallet under controlled atmosphere,
and calmly sticks a little “authentic artisanal product” label on the packaging.
It’s not cheating. It’s lexical engineering.
Two realities.
One word.
- One fights to survive by respecting the craft.
- The other steals the prestige of the craft, without ever having performed it.
And between the two? No regulatory barrier.
No safeguard. Just the complicit silence of the legal void.
This isn’t competition. It’s a two-speed illusion.
One produces reality. The other produces narrative.
3. Cultural erosion
“Artisanal” isn’t an adjective.
It’s a cultural marker.
A word that evokes centuries of transmission, gestures refined through patience, chosen slowness, the uniqueness of a product shaped by hands, not sensors.
This word designates a world.
A relationship to time, to materials, to others.
But here we are.
By letting it drift without a framework, by opening the door to lexical nonsense, the law abdicates.
It no longer protects a concept, it delivers a word to the marketing pack.
We no longer say “artisanal” to describe a crafted product.
We say “artisanal” to reassure, to seduce, to sell.
And this shift isn’t neutral.
It’s a slow, insidious dilution of everything that once held meaning.
- Transmission becomes a sales pitch.
- Slowness becomes a visual myth.
- Uniqueness becomes a storytelling element.
Reality is swallowed by narrative.
And narrative is controlled by those with the means to impose it.
“Artisanal” becomes an empty shell.
Polished. Graphically refined.
But stripped of its flesh, its history, its hand.
🔥 They are not alone
🍺 The industrial “artisanal” brewery
Several large Belgian (or international) breweries now brand themselves as “artisanal”, flaunting tradition, know-how, or natural fermentation — even though the volumes, vats, and processes look more industrial than microbrewery.
For example, some subsidiaries of global groups churn out “craft” series by the hectoliter, while playing the artisanal image — with no regulatory framework to stop them.
🍪 “Artisan-style” biscuits
The industrial biscuit market no longer hides its game: brands load packaging with words like “artisan”, “homemade”, “artisan-style” — riding a 22% growth in the “premium / artisanal” segment in organic and local products in France. Sales boosted by visuals, storytelling, and a single word.
🧠 Why it matters
These examples show the same modus operandi as with PMSweet:
- High production capacity
- Automated equipment
- Constructed “artisanal” image
- No legal safeguards
➡️ Lexical blur is no longer the exception: it has become the rule.
Entire industries build their offerings on this ambiguity — without risking any sanction as long as the labeling isn’t outright deceitful.
🎯 In conclusion
Today, a product can be 100% industrial,
made by an army of machines, under neon lights and sensors,
and still be baptized “artisanal” without flinching.
And in the meantime?
Everyone looks the other way.
The consumer feels flattered.
The industrialist is delighted.
The legislator stays silent.
This isn’t a system bug.
It’s a feature.
A choice.
Deliberate. Structured. Profitable.
A choice that benefits the powerful,
weakens the artisans,
and confuses the consumers.
As long as nothing changes, the word “artisanal” will remain what it has become:
a stage costume stitched by marketing,
worn by industry,
and tolerated by the law.
Thröl Haartkor Mk IV – I don’t mourn craftsmanship. I scream against its semantic recycling.
SOURCES:
1. Michael Labro – la plus belle usine de macarons au monde se trouvera bientot aux plenesses
2. PMSweet l’elite mondiale du macaron
3. PMSweet sagrandit et devient le plus grand producteur de macarons au monde
4. Peut-on utiliser librement les termes artisanal et artisan.
5. https://economie.fgov.be/fr/themes/entreprises/pme-et-independants-en/les-travailleurs-independants/les-artisans
6. https://p.pdfhall.com/produits-artisanaux_5a3462391723dd9ceb091eda.html
7. La reconnaissance légale de l’artisan
8. https://economie.fgov.be : Guidelines L’utilisation de la terminologie « artisanal » et ses dérivés dans l’appellation des produits
9. Le gouvernement réglemente l’utilisation du terme ‘artisanal’
10. La reconnaissance Artisan
11. Social representations of craft food products in three European countries
12. Big brands call the authenticity of artisanal foods into question
13. Consumers’ perception of food product craftsmanship: A review of evidence
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15. To (or Not to) Label Products as Artisanal: Effect of Fashion Involvement on Customer Perceived Value
16. THE CRAFTSMANSHIP SECTOR IN EUROPE abstract
17. How information leads consumers to select specialty foods when tasting is not an option
18. Consumers’ perception of the “Arte” seal in artisanal cheeses
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20. Using Premium Private Label for Consumer Interactions Beyond the Sale
21. European-Craft-Sector-report_FINAL.pdf
22. Artisanal Cheeses: A Qualitative Approach towards Brazilian Cheesemakers’ and Consumers’ Concepts and Perceptions about Artisan Foods
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24. Boosting Sales and Brand Image in the Food Industry: The Power of Artisanal Products
26. The Rise of Premium and Artisanal Biscuits Consumer Trends and Market Impact
26. The growing success of artisanal organic biscuit factories
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