The CEO of the world’s third largest malting group Malteurop, Olivier Parent, has been dismissed today. In an internal announcement Malteurop’s parent company Vivescia Industries reported about the change in top management without giving a reason. Olivier Parent became CEO of Malteurope in July 2017 after serving several functions within Groupe Vivescia for more than 14 years.
More than one year ago Mr.Parent restructured Malteurop’s organization to create a new “greater Europe” organization including 11 sites in France, Germany, Poland, Ukraine and Russia producing 40% of Malteurop’s total malt volume. With this new EMEA (Europe Middle East Africa) business unit, Malteurop aimed “to provide better service to its customers, at their own scale, in the region that constitutes both the largest malting-barley production area and the leading market for beer worldwide." It can be speculated that problems in this core market have led to the restructuring and finally to the dismissal of Mr. Parent.
His successor is Patrick Bordessoule, an interim and restructuring manager, partner and associate of French consulting firm Dirigeants & Investisseurs (D&I). D&I is specialized in consulting companies that “face unusual or even exceptional situations that generate imbalance and sometimes jeopardize their very existence,” according to their website.
After working seven years for Arthur Anderson consulting , Mr. Bordessoule’s spent 14 years as CFO and later as CEO of Sofrapain, a French industrial wholesale bakery, before joining D&I and working as an interim and restructuring manager in different companies. One of his most recent tasks was since September 2019 to reorganize NutriXo (Les Grands Moulins de Paris, Francine flour, Campaillette and Copaline craft bakers, Délifrance “cafés-restaurants”) another subsidiary of Vivescia Industries, which brought him back to his roots in baking and milling.
Mr. Bordessoul is unknown to the brewing and malting industry and without any further notice from Vivescia, it is not known if he just has to fill a seat until a successor has been found or if his longer task is the turnaround of the company.
One and a half years ago, GroupeVivesciawas in the news when its CEO Alain Le Floch left the company to start a new job as CEO of Terrena, another but even bigger French cooperative. From March 2005 until December 2010, Le Floch had been CEO of Malteurop before being promoted to CEO of Champagne Céréales. After the merger of Champagne Céréales with Nouricia he became the head of the newly formed Vivescia Group in 2012. (inside.beer, 10.09.2019)
Groupe Vivescia is an international, cooperative farming and food processing group, with 7,000 employees in 25 countries, generating revenue of EUR 3.2 billion, (USD 3.8bn) year ended 30 June 2020. Specialising in producing and adding value to grain, Vivescia is owned by 10,500 farmers from the north-east of France. “The group produces 1.8 billion pastries per year, with 1 in 10 beers worldwide made with its malts. Francine flour can be found in nearly one in three French households. Every day, thousands of consumers enjoy sweet and savoury delights in France with Campaillette's artisan bakers, and around the world thanks to the 250 café-restaurants of our Délifrance brand,” the company describes its industrial operations.
