Chief Executive Officer, InVivo Group (parent of Soufflet), Groupe Soufflet (part of InVivo Group since 2021)
Thierry Blandinières (InVivo) : "Nous sommes dans le changement du modèle économique en agriculture"
Avec Thierry Blandinières, Directeur général d'InVivoGroup Abonnez-vous pour plus de contenus : http://ow.ly/7FZy50G1rry ...
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 (23 segments)
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Jean-Marie0:04
Oser entreprendre, ré-entreprenez! Every Sunday with Thomas Binet. Hello, Thomas.
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Thomas Binet0:07
Hello, Jean-Marie.
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Jean-Marie0:07
Today on the program, I'll tell the saga of the Fnac cultural retailer. We'll welcome as our guest Thierry Blandinières, CEO of InVivo, an agricultural cooperative union, to discuss how to undertake in agriculture today. And I'll finish by talking about micromanagement. Let's start, as each week in partnership with Entreprendre magazine, with this week's saga: Fnac, the iconic French brand known for cultural products. Founded in 1954 by Max Théry and André Essel, it offered buyers commercial discounts on photo, radio, and appliance equipment. Since 80% of buyers were executives, the acronym became Fédération Nationale d'Achats des Cadres. After swift national expansion, the founders left in the 1980s. The company changed hands multiple times, faced major difficulties in the early 2000s with restructuring and 1,000 job cuts, and merged with Darty in 2015 to form a 1.2 billion euro group. COVID further weakened it, but the group continues transforming through digitalization under CEO Enrique Martinez. Good luck to this mythical brand. Now let's welcome your guest, Thierry Blandinières, CEO of InVivo, a union of 164 agricultural cooperatives across four strategic poles: agriculture, international grain trading, agri-food, and garden centers and food distribution. Welcome, Thierry Blandinières.
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Thierry Blandinières2:42
Hello, thank you for the invitation.
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Thomas Binet2:45
Thomas Binet on Sud Radio. Thierry Blandinières, we'll look at InVivo, the group you lead. But first, two months ago the Agricultural Show took place in the explosive context we all remember. In your view, has the government grasped the distress of farmers and agriculture in France?
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Thierry Blandinières3:03
We can say they've started to grasp it at both the French and European levels. We now hope for significant action to take into account farmers' income and put them at the center of the economic model, whether for small or large-scale agriculture. When we talk about agriculture, we must speak of multiple agricultures: territorial agriculture, sector agriculture—the issues are different and it's very complex. The Minister of Agriculture must mobilize, and that's the case today with Marc Fesneau, to bring solutions to each sector and each territory. As for the President of the Republic, he recently said he wouldn't chase after farmers and even told them to be patient. We can regret that—agriculture shouldn't be used as an electoral game, even with the European elections. We need to think long-term. The President must bring structuring long-term solutions for French and European agriculture, to demonstrate we can produce more, better, and sustainably. It's a matter of sovereignty. We see all the geopolitical stakes around cereals, for example. It's important to increase our production potential—increasing Europe's production potential means increasing farmers' income.
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Thomas Binet4:18
In ten years, to be precise, we've lost 100,000 farms. The farming population is aging. Is the farming profession in decline?
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Thierry Blandinières4:33
I would say yes and no. We're living through a significant transition—fewer farms, but production hasn't dropped. It means larger farms and a change of economic model. We need to support this transition: help small farms restructure, form larger operations that will interest young farmers because they'll have more resilient economic models. The traditional family farm as we knew it is over—it's no longer the model of tomorrow. It's transitioning toward a new kind of family farm. You see many SMEs that are family businesses; it'll be the same for agriculture—family businesses at the SME scale, no longer at the micro-enterprise scale, but with a resilient economic model. Farmers are entrepreneurs who want to develop their businesses. We need to create the playground for them to express themselves fully and realize their industrial and entrepreneurial projects.
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Thomas Binet5:34
You just said they're entrepreneurs, but they're also men and women hit hard—12 suicides per month, income below 2,000 euros per month per farming household. Everyone agrees to support farmers, we've heard it and seen it from the French population. But at the same time, no one wants to pay more—we'd actually like to keep paying less. Aren't we in a permanent contradiction? Aren't we walking on our heads regarding this situation?
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Thierry Blandinières6:01
If our heads are upside down, that's what the young farmers were saying—that's where the protests started. Indeed, we need to set things straight and show how the economic model can be competitive, addressing both what consumers want—quality products at competitive prices—while putting the farmer's income at the center as the engine of French farm production. All this is possible if we reset everything, rethink the economic model, and find solutions. We can be very competitive in cereals, for example. We export cereals worldwide. One ton in two is exported at the Chicago exchange rate, and cereal farmers make a good living. That's a path forward.
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Thomas Binet6:41
You're a major agricultural actor, as Jean-Marie mentioned, with 12.4 billion euros in revenue, 14,500 employees, and a presence in 36 countries—an actor with real international weight. And the idea is to become a champion to compete against international competition.
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Thierry Blandinières7:00
You're right. France's weakness today is not having a champion at the international scale, compared to the Americans, Chinese, Brazilians, Russians, and Ukrainians. We need to structure—which is the whole InVivo project: a group capable of rivaling in global competition. That's what we're doing with the Soufflet acquisition two years ago. We doubled in size and need to continue doubling to become the great European group capable of exporting French cereals worldwide. It's also about geopolitics and sovereignty—and sovereignty is exportable. It's geopolitics. If we want to influence our relations with African countries, wheat is an interesting tool for building economic and political relationships.
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Thomas Binet7:47
You're also in a producer-to-consumer approach, having created a global distribution network including garden centers, bakeries, and food stores. Why go all the way to the end of the chain?
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Thierry Blandinières8:02
There are two levels: we need to think locally while acting globally—it goes both ways. We need to work on both levers. That's InVivo: being an export leader but also thinking about sector and territorial logic, highlighting regional productions through our network of stores and garden centers.
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Thomas Binet8:21
Let me name a few brands so people understand—because the InVivo brand isn't necessarily well-known—though the distribution brands are more familiar: Gamme Verte, Jardinland, Delbar for garden centers, and Louise for bakeries. So you go all the way to work with the end consumer.
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Thierry Blandinières8:39
What consumers want is more transparency on the supply chain. With the Louise bakeries, for example, on the wheat supply chain, we can say exactly where the baguette comes from—we can trace it back to the farmer and see in what conditions it was produced. We control the entire value chain, which lets us understand how the economic model works from the farmer to the baker. This is very interesting for working on the future and the great economic and food transitions ahead of us.
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Thomas Binet9:03
Preparing for your interview, I saw you signed a capital agreement with a company that won't be familiar to ordinary mortals, called Mx Organique, backed by Mr. Niel and Zoëri, the latter being the owner of Picard and Maxi Bazar. What's the interest of such an association? That'll be my last question.
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Thierry Blandinières9:28
It's always the same—you need to find financial leverage. This was about listing our group on the stock market. We used a vehicle called a SPAC—I won't explain the details—but it allowed us to accelerate the stock market listing of our retail branch to continue acquiring bakeries like Louise and developing our economic model in France.
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Thomas Binet9:47
Thank you, Thierry Blandinières. I remind you he's the CEO of InVivo. Coming up, we continue with Oser Entreprendre.
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Jean-Marie10:03
After a major group, we now talk about micromanagement. What does it consist of, Thomas?
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Thomas Binet10:10
You know the expression: 'Trust does not exclude control.' With micromanagement, we have a very structured version of control—an approach where a manager supervises in total and minute detail the tasks of their employees. This translates into excessive involvement in every detail of the team's work and constant surveillance. Why does a manager resort to this? Mainly out of fear—fear of losing control of their own authority and an inability to delegate effectively. Being a manager isn't simple. But you must grow collaborators by giving them responsibility and accepting they may make mistakes. The manager must know themselves, admit not everything should go through them, accept the collaborator's expertise and need for autonomy, and communicate to build a climate of trust that doesn't suffocate the employee. In conclusion: micromanagement is a method to avoid. It's insidious and counterproductive—it can undermine employees' trust, hinder their autonomy and creativity, and reduce their motivation. Ultimately, it harms productivity and company culture.
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Jean-Marie11:29
Thank you very much, Thomas Binet. Stay nearby—we'll talk about what's coming up next. You see, I'm delegating the program announcement to you—wouldn't that be micromanagement?
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Thomas Binet11:38
Exactly. We're going to talk about tax declarations. Not the most fun topic, but it's worth looking into. Right after this.