Reconfiguration of Conserves France

On 18 October, during a meeting with the mayor of Tarascon, a city where a Conserves France plant has been located for many years, the General Director of Conserve Italia, Pierpaolo Rosetti, answered a number of questions asked by the local press.

First of all, Pierpaolo Rosetti presented the French branch of the Italian group: "Conserves France is a subsidiary of the Italian food group Conserve Italia, food processing giant and leading European player on the market for canned fruit and vegetables and beverages. This group currently operates two factories in France, the first being located in Tarascon and the second in Saint-Sylvestre-sur-Lot. It provides jobs for 418 collaborators at the peak of the season, processing some 64 000 tonnes of vegetables and distributing almost 100 000 tonnes of finished products, which are shipped each year in various conditioning formats (cans, jars, tubes, bowl containers, carton packs…).” At the busiest point of the harvest, both factories process 1 500 tonnes of vegetables per day.

The General Director of Conserve Italia then went on to explain the group's decision to reorganize its administrative headquarters and logistics installations on the Tarascon site. "Based in Nîmes since the creation of Conserves France in 1997, the administrative headquarters benefited until the end of 2015 from a logical positioning with regard to the fruit processing plant set up a few kilometers away in Vauvert. Following the sale of the Saint-Mamet brand, we wanted to leave the rented premises in Nîmes in order to benefit from joint premises available in the administrative buildings of the historic factory in Tarascon, similar to what we did several months previously when we reorganized our logistics installations. This has allowed us to set up the administrative headquarters in the heart of the Provence region, which is known for its vegetable crops, and we have been able to give the site a new strategic dimension." 

This reorganization required transformations and justified investments on the Tarascon site. In total, the group will have "invested more than EUR 600 000 in the first instance, in order to reorganize several sectors of the factory, intending to provide better working conditions for the 18 Nîmes employees that joined, last July, the 55 permanent staff already active on the site. Central operations linked to scheduling, sales, finance, IT, marketing, planning, human resources and supply-chain networks have now been gathered to the Tarascon site. In total, more than 500 m² of space have been renovated in order to offer staff an optimal and enjoyable working environment."

According to Pierpaolo Rossetti, this rationalization of operations offers new prospects. "In 2017, the turnover of the company increased by 40%, and the production volume of the site grew by more than 45%. So the future of the group seems promising. The Tarascon plant, which is run by Alexandre François, hopes to benefit from this new impetus in order to pursue the development of its ranges of mixed vegetables and continue to offer its clients finished products that are high quality, nutritionally balanced and made in Provence. With this aim of consolidating the future of the site, the plant's executive staff know that they can count on the historic expertise of the operational teams and are furthermore considering recruiting new employees, particularly in the area of production equipment operations, quality control and electro-technical issues. This new configuration of Conserves France will allow the company to concentrate on developing the group throughout France and abroad, whilst continuing to offer large retail chains a wide variety of quality products".

For both of the Conserves France plants in 2016-2017, industrial investments have amounted to EUR 1.8 million. 50 000 tonnes of various canned products have been manufactured, and 92 000 tonnes have been shipped for a total turnover of EUR 75 million.

For more details: http://www.conservesfrance.fr/

Sources: local press