- Soréal represents about 600 listed items (fresh processed products and sauces)
- Since 1992, the company has experienced significant growth, particularly since the CPS buyout (Comptoir Provençal des Sauces) and a
- Since 2007, CPS has been integrated into the site in
- The company currently has 50 employees, with a 5,000-ton yearly production volume and a €10m turnover (including 95% in salted products), integrating 50% for OHC (out-of-home catering) after the CPS buyout. Export, mainly towards
- The team includes 10 supervisory staff, with 3 people in R&D, 3 on quality control and 4 on process and methods analysis. There are also 1 buyer, 4 logisticians as well as the sales department with 2 managers and 3 admin staff. Production runs on 8 automated packaging lines, with two 8-hour shifts or even, on some lines, round the clock.
OHC, a market hungry for industrial know-how.
The Soréal Company, founded in 1992, was established within the Bois de Teillay Business Park in Brie-Janze in 1998. Since 2007, following the CPS buyout, all production was moved to the site in
CPS was in the same business, but for a different market, as company Chairman and MD Gilles Bocabeille confirms: “Clearly, semi-finished food products and OHC obviously complement each other. This is turning out to be extremely interesting; we see that today with our increase in turnover. The industry has become much more exacting, and has better performance in terms of innovative products demand. We are producing tailor-made products in processed meat, deli, salads etc.” Every year, Soréal takes on 600 cases on average. It is a very complex trade, where one must satisfy a vast amount of requirements that are all very different since they can involve salads as well sandwiches, Carpaccio, hamburgers... whereas OHC mainly concerns the traditional basics such as mayonnaise, salad sauce, ketchup etc, all standard products on the market.
Staff shortages in the food industry: “Let us share our resources, and let us talk shop together!”
When Soréal moved CPS business to Brittany, the issue of restructuring reared its head. As Gilles Bocabeille explains, it was an amazing feat, especially as regards hiring production staff (line workers, maintenance agents, production foremen etc): “These are profiles who do not exist on the market, who are not trained, or so little, that they are in great demand. So we set up our team of machine experts by training them ourselves.” Soréal recruited people who at first were not particularly planning on working in this business, but who got motivated and stayed on. The company experiences a very low staff turnover. “We want people who stay, who get involved, who progress and get better... The real problem with all this is that we cannot find any young people... and that the schools available to them remain empty,” observes Gilles Bocabeille with some resentment. As far as the Chairman is concerned, food-industry job promotion aimed at the young is sorely lacking. “In the food industry, we badly need those trades, line workers, maintenance technicians... The young often have an image of those jobs that is light-years from reality, a totally wrong impression. It behoves us to promote our trades. Our industry is no labour camp, it also actually happens that we experience great careers!”
A recipe to protect the environment and save money.
Concerning the environmental issue, two years ago the company replaced all plastics with paper, and efforts were made to produce the thinnest possible packaging. “In terms of our business, it would be most inappropriate to say that we are not concerned with the environment,” asserts Gilles Bocabeille. “Take polypropylene; even if that feature isn’t mentioned on the finished product seen by the consumer, our industrial semi-finished food product customer will appreciate our approach towards recyclable materials. Thus packaging went from a cup to a dosed bag. From
A company that is largely tertiary
Behind every Soréal product, there is traceability, there are controls, safety measures, services, deliveries, raw materials selection, huge amounts of process, purchasing and a highly secure supply system, all of which is ISO certified. This is no basic processing. Accordingly, 40% of the workforce is not directly involved in production, given a powerful R&D department. The company is also a development laboratory for its customers: “We work closely with our customers, we even welcome them inside our laboratories to conduct projects. They come to us with a need, with requirements that are more or less structured. We progress gradually until we can make the requirement as precise as possible. Then we get approval for a prototype, which a little later is validated by the market before going on to production,” insists Gilles Bocabeille. On average, the time it takes to go from the idea of the product to having the first order ready for shipping can range from six months to a year. “Some of the developed products we work on have won an award; we are working in the shadows, yet we are not bitter at not being acknowledged, for our satisfaction comes from our fully experiencing these projects with our customers.”
An industry in tune with consumer trends.
As Sales Manager Joseph Lavanant explains: “For several years, we have been noticing significant trends in semi-finished food products. It is in industry that you will find innovation, and OHC just follows the momentum. Kebab has seen strong growth for the past 4 years, but the same can be said for ethnic foods, sweet-and-sour and Asian products, tsatsiki, marinades etc. We are developing a great amount of ranges in those products. We are very proactive regarding those new trends. Our watch activity takes place through being in touch with the market, and through the customers, who approach us a lot. The other big trend is to lean towards nutritional products, which are also light, pure and with a minimal amount of preservatives.” In another respect, customers of commercial and collective catering chains are becoming increasingly aware, and they want better developed products, with intrinsic qualities: less fat, better balanced etc. Significant trends that have been integrated in semi-finished food products for a long time, and that OHC is progressively embracing.
Investing in processes.
In terms of equipment, Soréal’s latest investments have consisted in getting processes that require fairly advanced technical expertise, in particular a new bag-filling machine producing 30,000 doses par hour. There is no choice but to master its complexity. “We now understand various kinds of technology, like thermo-shaping, vertical and horizontal sealing and more. In some cases we have two machines on the same technology, and we have therefore augmented the complexity. When you see the sauce, you cannot imagine how much more work, study or testing can be needed for the packaging than for the sauce itself!” concludes Sales Director Joseph Lavanant.
The CFIA, a catalyst for links and exchanges between food industry professionals.
Soréal has been exhibiting at CFIA for several years and it has noted the significant changes happening in semi-finished food product ingredients, which nowadays have a comprehensive offer, and the arrival of visitors that are increasingly demanding with projects. In addition, as Gilles Bocabeille points out: “We have a geographic proximity. Most of our team has visited the trade show. Many came spontaneously, for R&D, quality control, technical ops as well as production people had things there they wanted to see. We are exhibitors, and they might have been made aware of the image we project through the way we present the company. For any supplier participating in CFIA, there is a double objective: one concerning the booth, but also one concerning the exhibitors themselves.”
