Thierry Blandinières

Chief Executive Officer, InVivo Group (parent of Soufflet), Groupe Soufflet Part Of Invivo Since 2021

Search every verified Thierry Blandinières interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Thierry Blandinières, chief executive of InVivo Group and president of the rugby club CA Brive, discussed his career and the challenges of the garden retail business during a recent appearance. He described his early professional experience at Procter & Gamble as a period that helped him structure his approach to marketing and sales, and noted that he left the company to avoid becoming "sclerotic." He also recalled his time as head of Madrange in the 1990s, where he helped launch the "jambon Véronique" communication campaign, and his decade as vice-president of the Mont-de-Marsan rugby club, which he described as a club with a smaller budget than Brive that consistently fields competitive teams. Blandinières addressed the performance of the garden retail sector, which he said generates most of its annual results in just two months. He noted that last year's poor spring weather was "catastrophic" for garden centers, while this year's conditions are returning to normal. He added that the business is difficult because it requires carrying inventory for a short sales window, and that the company waits until June 30 to determine whether it has had a good year.