PHOTO: FABIAN BROCKÖTTER
INTERVIEW ▶▶▶
“Year of the big turnaround”
Novogen celebrated its ten year anniversary, looking back at a decade of uphill struggles in the layer breeder market. Festivities were kept modest but very positive and full of ambition, as with the sale of Hubbard, 2018 posed challenges. Managing director Mickaël Le Helloco looks back with Poultry World: “This was the year of the big turnaround, repositioning Novogen for a bright future.”
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n 2018 Novogen probably faced one of its most unexpected and exciting challenges yet, not in the field of animal genetics, but organisational. From the start of the company within Groupe Grimaud a decade ago, the layer business could bene-
fit greatly from the network and organisation of Hubbard. Mr Le Helloco: “This year we had to learn to fly on our own and rebuild our commercial network. Just a simple issue was that we were in the same building, that says something about how close we were. Disconnecting wasn’t easy but we now feel stronger with our own organisation henceforth.”
What was the effect on your business? “I have to be honest, our two main competitors have always been worried to see a third actor emerge and shake up their duopoly and they tried to destabilise us from the very beginning in 2008. With the internal reorganisation, this year was too good an opportunity for them to question Novogen’s persistence with customers, since from the product point of view, we are generally a head of the competi- tion. We had to talk a lot with our customers and prove to them our long-term commitment. From mid-2018 onwards we had our teams in place, in the field, and I already see a positive market reaction from that. Thanks to Groupe Grimaud’s recent investments to meet our ambitious, we are show- ing that we are out there and the prospective looks really good.”
Can you explain how you built your business the last decade? “When we started at Novogen in 2008, a lot of work had already been done. Groupe Grimaud was in the fortunate position to be able
to buy a gene pool in 1997. That was the real start of our business. In the year that followed an extensive breeding programme was estab- lished, which resulted in four lines of competitive layers. With the world being dominated by two large breeding companies, people often thought we were crazy to start a new company. However, there hasn’t been one moment in which I thought we made the wrong choice. We always said that too much consolidations isn’t a healthy situation, however, it needs a brave individual to step into the presumed empty space.”
With the world divided into two, how did you convince poten- tial customers? “At the start we only had data of test flocks and the product itself to make the difference. Some people didn’t believe we would make it as a company, but there were also people who wanted to have an alternative choice and/or stay independent. As a third player in the world, we could cater to that. At the same time that gave us the opportunity to get more and more real life production and performance data.”
I presume the performance was solid, as you are still in busi- ness ten years later? “By just offering a mediocre alternative, you will not be able to devel- op in this worldwide market. Everyone wants competition, but they also want quality and security. By proposing competitive products, you have a market potential of 20-25%. That is what we are building on now. With the global trend going from cage to alternative hous- ing systems, our product is becoming a reference product.”
▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 1, 2019 11
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