Chief Executive Officer, InVivo Group (parent of Soufflet), Groupe Soufflet (part of InVivo Group since 2021)
Thierry Blandinières, Directeur général d'Invivo est l'invité du Figaro TV
Comment le monde agricole s'adapte-t-il aux bouleversements climatiques et économiques ? Thierry Blandinières, directeur ...
About Thierry Blandinières
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.
Transcript (8 segments)
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Olivia0:13
Hello and welcome to Esprit d'Entreprise, the show of major interviews on Figaro TV, which gives the floor to business leaders. Hello Olivia, hello. Today we have the pleasure of welcoming Thierry Blandinières. You are the CEO of InVivo, a giant of agriculture in France, a cooperative of cooperatives with 11.5 billion euros in revenue and 15,000 employees. You are present everywhere in agriculture: seeds, fertilizers, phytosanitary products, advice, services, international grain trading, milling, industrial baking, wine, and you own major brands like Gamm Vert and Jardiland. You are the Swiss Army knife of agriculture. We will discuss your projects and your vision of French farming and the farm of the future. You will tell us how farmers can adapt to climate change and what the mood is in the agricultural world. To start, let's listen to Arnaud Rousseau, head of the FNSEA, on RTL last Thursday.
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Arnaud Rousseau1:52
For a year, the agricultural world that cries out its anger has not been heard. For the second time in less than six months, farmers who were made promises see them pass before them without any result because there was a dissolution and because the motion of censure that brought down the government no longer offers us interlocutors capable of answering the questions and commitments that were made to us.
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Olivia2:17
So, Thierry Blandinières, now that we have a Prime Minister in François Bayrou, is hope again allowed for French farmers?
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Thierry Blandinières2:24
It is certain that today farmers are worried. There are elections for the Chambers of Agriculture on January 31, so there is competition between unions. This context agitates the countryside. The anxiety had already manifested a year ago with the symbol of overturned village signs saying 'we walk with our heads upside down.' We are being imposed charges that reduce our production potential, so we import more products that do not respect European or French standards. There are contradictory injunctions between the Green Deal and the reality of imports, since there is no mirror clause. Many promises are made, and demonstrations have occurred across Europe. The Green Deal commits to a new agriculture, but it adds constraints without the ability to pass on costs to consumers, leading to a potential drop in farmer income. Imports have increased because we reduced production potential. So improving farmer income involves both price and volume. Do you feel the anger could lead to blockades like at the beginning of the year?
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Olivia5:15
It is important that we have a new Prime Minister who knows agriculture well, being from a farming family in the Southwest. But knowing the issues is one thing, finding solutions is another. The priority, as Arnaud Rousseau said, is that the agricultural law that was supposed to be voted in July must be voted quickly and implemented before the Agricultural Show in February. Let's look at the real state of agriculture: production is down, prices are down, wages are down. What is your assessment of the ability to move forward?
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Thierry Blandinières6:29
We are experiencing a very difficult campaign due to a rainy spring and summer, which reduced production potential, yields, and incomes. However, global prices have not increased because other producers like Argentina and the US produced more. So the French lose income. This adds pressure on farmers. Yes, there is a significant drop in income with costs not decreasing enough, affecting cash flow. There was temporary aid from the Minister of Agriculture ending January 1, which should continue. Cash flow is essential.
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Olivia7:45
Meanwhile, Mrs. von der Leyen signed the Mercosur agreement, a free trade deal between Europe and South America. It's very complicated. Some sectors like wine could win, but the beef sector is pointed out. However, it only represents 1% of European consumption. It's symbolic but can have an impact if retailers use it to lower prices. The anger is also about importing products produced with methods forbidden here. Mirror clauses are discussed, but it's difficult in the short term. These issues raise the question of competitiveness and what agriculture of tomorrow should be. Do you think it should be organic?
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Thierry Blandinières12:43
Volume is key: it crushes costs and allows producing more quality at lower cost. We are working on a resilience study for French agriculture by 2050. France has both very large and many small farms. The traditional family farm can be viable in some regions with diversified production. For large crops, size is needed to amortize fixed costs and compete on global prices set in Chicago. We need pedagogy: being big does not mean poor quality. Germany's large farms in the East are virtuous and competitive, making Germany the top European producer. Innovation is crucial: precision agriculture, digital, AI, data mapping at the square meter to optimize treatments. This already exists and needs scaling up. Financing will be part of the agricultural law. Regarding InVivo's strategy, we are making choices. In wine, we will stay in bulk collection and trading, and we are open to consolidation. Our vision is to create a European-scale agricultural group to rival American and Chinese operators in cereals. We aim to increase trading and work on first and second transformation, like malting where we are world number one. For wheat, we are the first miller in France and are expanding into retail bakery. The goal is to control from seed to transformation, buying everything from the farmer. We could become the world leader in cereals as the northern Europe production basin grows with climate change. Governance as a cooperative of cooperatives means one man one vote, requiring political engagement from the field. We represent 50 billion in total. Personally, I wanted to be a fighter pilot, but I pivoted into agri-food and am fulfilled creating this group. Thank you.