THESE are momentous days for sliced bread, at least in France. The land of the long crusty baguette boasts more artisanal bakers supplying freshly cooked loaves than any other country in Europe, says the International Association of Plant Bakers. Yet sales of pre-cut bread, wrapped in cellophane and twist-tied with plastic fasteners, are booming.

The market in packaged bread in France is now worth over €500m ($560m) a year, says Xerfi, a consultancy. In mid-June the country’s biggest industrial bakery opened in Chateauroux, with a surface area equivalent to six soccer pitches. Owned by Barilla, an Italian food group, the bakery will churn out 160m packets of sliced bread a year, almost exclusively for the French market. Last year sales of Harrys, its leading sliced-bread brand, reached 125,000 tonnes, up by 25% on 2007. Jacquet, a rival French baker, offers 18 different varieties of pre-packaged slices.

Why are the French suddenly so keen on sliced bread? Partly because of its long-lasting convenience at a time of squeezed lifestyles. Nothing beats a freshly baked baguette, but it is best eaten within hours of leaving the oven. France has a high share of women in the workforce, and harried workers no longer have time to pick one up daily, as tradition dictates. In big cities, lunchtime habits are also changing: traditional three-course meals are giving way to le snacking, especially among the young. A poll suggests that 26% of the French now take 15 minutes or less to eat lunch. So sandwiches are on the rise. Over 2 billion were sold in France in 2014, and just over a third are now made from sliced bread, not baguettes.

The other answer is smart marketing. Sliced bread without crusts is a new fad, heavily promoted to children on television. Equally surprising is the appeal of Harrys, which sells sliced bread branded as “American sandwich”. Of “American inspiration”, the brand reflects “modernity and liberty”, says Géraldine Fiacre, a marketing director at Barilla. The Harrys brand was devised after the second world war by a French baker who was intrigued by the flat sandwiches eaten by American soldiers at a NATO air base in Chateauroux. Charles de Gaulle later ordered the American troops out, but France’s new mega-bakery is just down the road from the old base.