On the 1st of June, ProNatura (part of the Organic Alliance group) organized an Open Day at the Rungis market. It was an opportunity for clients and partner producers (MédiTerraBio, DOUAR DEN and BIOBREIZH) to meet and exchange ideas, and for the company to present the merger of its two sites, the creation of a dried fruit area, and its current and future development plans including the reinforcement and creation of new supply chains.
“Bringing in the clients allows us to showcase all of our expertise: grading, stock rotation, quality selection, freshness, shipping, to reaffirm our convictions and to bring our producers and clients closer together, something which we consider essential.”
Pierrick Leroux (center), general director of ProNatura and chairman and CEO of Organic Alliance, surrounded by two MédiTerraBio producers.
Clients and producers delighted
“What was important was to be able to meet our clients at an emblematic location.” The day was very well received by clients and producers alike. “We want to strengthen our ties with producers and showcase their expertise. As for our clients, they were able to discover our reorganization of the Rungis floor. Over the past few months, they have seen through our offers that the market has been rather sluggish, so we have taken the opposite approach by giving this market the opportunity to bounce back with more goods and more displays. It is the strategy we want to implement: more choice and variety, so they were pleasantly surprised and satisfied.”
The feedback from the Rungis market’s institutional clients was also very positive. The day was marked by a visit from Stéphane Layani, president of the Rungis market, who appreciated our dynamism and our desire to reinvest in our organic floor rather than the other way round. Given the current context, we could have been tempted to disinvest, but we have chosen to invest heavily in Les Halles Bio.”
Dominique Batani, Pierrick Leroux and Stéphane Layani
Grouping of sales areas for optimum management and a better offer
In March this year, ProNatura merged its sales areas. The new organization “works perfectly,” according to Pierrick Leroux. “Initially, we had separated the morning market activity from the afternoon shipping activity, with a dedicated annex warehouse.” While this split had its advantages, it also had limitations, especially in terms of stock management. “We had structured the floor around these volumes but we realized that we were running out of goods for our clients.”
The two complementary activities have now been combined. “We now have the market activity, which ends at 10 am, followed by 1 hour to refill the stocks and clean the workspace, and from 11 am, we start shipping. Inventory management has been optimized, and we have now created a better offer. The benefits of this reorganization quickly became apparent. “Without any additional actions, we have seen our sales grow thanks to this important offer proposed to our clients every day.”
ProNatura with its partner BioBreizh
Promoting dried fruit with the creation of a dedicated area
The Open Day was also an opportunity for ProNatura to inaugurate its new dried fruit area. According to Pierrick Leroux, these products are increasingly popular for their nutritional qualities, and deserve to be developed further. While the range is particularly well-developed in specialist stores and supermarket departments, it is still under-exploited at the Rungis market. This situation can be explained by a lack of visibility. “The problem is that they are packaged, which makes sense from a sanitary point of view, but we cannot see them. Creating this space therefore allows us to enhance the range and offer it to our Rungis clients. We want to encourage them to work with exceptional products, as we do with other products such as our Turkish figs or Algerian dates.”
ProNatura invests in organic products
“We believe in organic agriculture,” explains Pierrick Leroux. Regardless of the storms, ProNatura is determined to continue developing organic products against the current trend. “We want to strengthen and consolidate our supply chains, and set up new ones. The lands are changing, consumption is evolving, and new opportunities are opening up. With this in mind, ProNatura has decided to work on “promising” new channels, such as Plaisirs du Verger peaches and nectarines, now in their second season. “We want to offer high-quality fruit to our clients, a selection of tasty, sweet varieties, picked at the right moment on the tree, so that the end consumer can enjoy them when they are ripe.” A “real gamble”, according to Pierrick Leroux, in a market in difficulty, exacerbated by an inflationary context.
“We want to show that organic is about quality and taste.” But ProNatura wants to go further, as the company has set itself the goal of making organic products accessible to as many people as possible. “We see it as our responsibility to make it possible for as many people as possible to consume good, quality products grown according to our values.”
Photo credit: ProNatura
For more information:
ProNatura
11 Av. des Savoies Bâtiment D6
94150 Rungis
Phone: 01 41 76 17 60
pronatura.com
organic-alliance.com
