E-Malt.com News article: France: Champagne Céréales and Nouricia planning to create an agri-industrial group

Champagne Céréales and Nouricia, France’s two leading grain cooperatives, have announced plans to join forces to pursue their development strategy together through the creation of a powerful and high-performing agri-industrial group to manage production and consumption chains from field to fork, from producers to consumers, and meet the expectations of both customers and society as a whole.

Strengthened by:
- their converging vision of farming challenges
- successful alliances and partnerships (SéVéal for agricultural suppliers and Siclaé for industrial plant transformation)
- a joint desire to excel in implementing cooperative values
- their respective plants on adjacent and identical land,
and through this innovative model, Champagne Céréales and Nouricia aim to create and capture greater added value, and grasp every opportunity offered to agriculture to ensure the sustainable development of farms.

The cooperatives' respective boards of directors are currently examining the feasibility of the project, for which ambitions go beyond the simple joining of forces for the two cooperatives, and which will be put to members this autumn by vote.

Champagne Céréales is a farming and agri-industrial cooperative group, based in the North-East of France and present on numerous international markets, which generates a turnover of €2.4 billion (at 30th June 2010).

At the heart of the group is the Cooperative's farming division, which federates 8200 farmers for a total harvested volume of 2.5 million tonnes.

Nouricia is a cooperative farming group from Champagne Ardenne, with a turnover of €580 million (at 30th June 2011).

Strongly involved in industrial processing, Champagne Céréales and Nouricia work together, with other cooperatives, within Siclaé, a group made up of seven divisions dedicated to adding value to plant matter.

The world's leading malt producer and one of the Europe's leading millers, the group also operates in the animal feed, corn processing, and starch and glucose production industries. As well as these activities, it owns shares in Ineos Champlor and LMT Oléagineux, two recently-created companies specialised in bioenergy.

The group, which remains highly present in the North-East of France, developed quickly on international markets and now has 76 production sites in 17 countries. During the 2009/2010 financial year, Siclaé generated a turnover of €1.6 billion, employing 6250 people, including 4500 in France.

Siclaé's shareholding is composed of farming cooperatives, financial partners (FSI, Crédit Agricole du Nord-Est, UNIGRAINS) and individual shareholders.


23 September, 2011