The Soufflet Group

The Soufflet Group was a French family-owned agro-industrial business which specialised in collecting and adding value to agricultural raw materials.

Overview
The Group primarily operated in the wheat and barley sectors in France, Europe, and Asia. It supported arable farmers with grain collection and cereal processing; advised on malting, cereal production and export, and assisted vine growers and winemakers.

The OSIRIS Programme
In 2008, the Group became a key player in the OSIRIS programme, researching new ways of improving agricultural resources, animal nutrition and generating biofuels. OSIRIS also included the Laboratory of Biochemistry at ESPCI-ParisTech, and Maguin S.A.S., (a leading French company in the ethanol-production industry). In total, OSIRIS spent €77 million over eight years: partly funded by Oséo, along with four regional biotechnology research programmes: PRBR - Programmes de Recherche Biotechnologique Régionaux (FEDER), the Champagne-Ardenne region, the department of Aube, and the town of Nogent-sur-Seine.

Fields of Business
The Soufflet Group had nine businesses:

Agriculture
France's top private collector of cereals and oil seeds, Soufflet Agriculture stores and markets farm production, and retails agricultural supplies in France and five other European countries.

Vine
Soufflet Vigne offers vine growers, winemakers, cooperatives and merchants a range of products and services, together with technical advice.

Trading


The Group's Trading Division, Soufflet Négoce, has 4 trading offices and 4 port silos (in the Atlantic, the Channel and the Black Sea). It specialises in sourcing, transporting and exporting cereals, oilseeds and dairy products.

Milling
With 10 mills in France and Belgium, Moulins Soufflet prepares and markets flours for its different types of customers: traditional bakers, flour-using industries and major retailers. Moulins Soufflet also owns the Baguépi brand name.

Ingredients
Formulating tailor-made ingredients, AIT Ingredients offers solutions meeting the various problems its industrial customers face, mainly in the breadmaking sector. The company is developing in the European and African markets as well as in Russia, the Middle East and South America.

Malting
Malteries Soufflet is one of the world's main producers of kilned and roasted malt and caramels.

Maize processing
Specializing in the first conversion of maize, Costimex produces and markets worldwide maize hominies, grits, semolina and flour tailored to the various requirements of brewers and snack and breakfast cereal manufacturers.

Rice and pulses
An industrial company specialising in processing and packing rice and pulses, Soufflet Alimentaire, which has three plants in France, including one in partnership – offers more than 120 materials and 2,000 product lines for the industrial, ethnic, catering and retail markets.

Soufflet Alimentaire (the food division) develops as well as markets products that can be microwaved by end-users under its Vivien Paille brand name.

Biotechnology
In Solid State Fermentation (SSF), the Soufflet Group works in the field of biotechnologies applied to innovative biocatalysts from agricultural resources.

Its Caen-based Lyven subsidiary formulates and produces SSF enzyme solutions for the fruit processing, drinks, bakery, animal feed and biofuel sectors.

History

 * 1900 - Pierre and Lucie Juchat founded a grain business at Nogent-sur-Seine in France's Champagne region.
 * 1927 - Lucie Juchat passed the small business on to her son-in-law Jean Soufflet and daughter Yvonne who developed a cereal collection.
 * 1939 - Jean Soufflet built the first grain silo on Quai Sarrail at Nogent-sur-Seine, where the Group is still based.
 * 1946 - the family business became a limited liability company under the name Etablissements J. Soufflet.
 * 1947 - farming modernised with the Marshall Plan and the construction of Europe took shape.
 * 1950 - Jean Soufflet began the first cereal exports and bought the big Nogent-sur-Seine malt plant in 1953.
 * 1957 - After his father died, Michel Soufflet ran the business.
 * 1958 - The business became a joint stock company of 500,000 francs capital and was employing some twenty people.
 * 1960 - Michel Soufflet improved cereal collection by creating a service to uplift and transport grain from the field to the silo.
 * 1965 - Ets. J. Soufflet had thirty-four employees, including one at the Pont-sur-Seine silo and one at Anglure.
 * 1966 - The first port silo was built at Rouen.
 * 1970 - The Group built a new malt plant at Nogent-sur-Seine (30,000-tonne capacity) and opened its first foreign subsidiary in 1974, in Great Britain.
 * 1978 - The Group, which had become the top private collector of cereals in France, went into milling by buying the first mill in France's Aube.
 * 1981 - Jean-Michel Soufflet began his career in the Group.
 * 1982 - Other sectors added such as plant baking, maize processing
 * 1989 - Rice and pulses added.
 * 1989 - The Group consolidated its milling business, taking over Cérès, the biggest miller in Belgium.
 * 1994 - Soufflet bought the Pantin Group, consisting of Grands Moulins of Pantin and Corbeil, the Franco-Belgian malt plants and the cereal trader Cerapro.
 * 1998 - The Group expanded abroad, investing in particular in Central and Eastern European countries.
 * 2001 (Jan) - Jean-Michel Soufflet was appointed Chairman of the Executive Board; Michel Soufflet became Chairman of the Supervisory Board.
 * 2002 (Apr) - The malting division expanded with the purchase of Tchécomalt and new companies set up in the Community of Independent States - Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine (2004)
 * 2003 - The Ingredients Division was created, following the purchase of Lyven.
 * 2005 - Moulins Soufflet bought the Dadou and Thor mills, then the Strasbourg mill in 2009, and the Ozon mill in 2010.
 * 2008 - Marked by the official launch of the Osiris biotechnology innovation programme.
 * 2010 - Malting Division inaugurated two new plants, in Romania and at Nogent-sur-Seine.
 * 2011 (1 Jul) - Soufflet Agriculture took over Etablissements Maison Daughter (Indre) and AGIR (Yonne).
 * 2011 - Soufflet Malting took over two malt plants from Kamenitza, a subsidiary of the Starbev Group (Bulgaria), then the German maltster Durst Malz.



Acquisition by InVivo Group
In December 2021, The Soufflet Group was acquired by the InVivo Group. To help finance the acquisition, InVivo planned to sell a minority stake in Soufflet's malt division to KKR (KKR.N), Credit Agricole (CAGR.PA), and Bpifrance for 440 million euros.