Sodiaal loses CEO and stops A and B awards

Sodiaal, owner of the Entremont, Candia and Yoplait brands, among others, is also working hard to achieve new climate and sustainability goals. 

The announcement of the departure of CEO Jorge Boucas was quite unexpected. More than a week ago he announced that he was leaving, to sugar company Tereos, and his last working day is on February 28. His duties are temporarily fulfilled by the two managers below him in rank, until a new CEO is found.

Retail is holding back higher milk prices
In itself, the departure of Boucas, after six years as chief executive, is not surprising. The switch is taking place very quickly, and at a time when there is a lot of dissatisfaction in French dairy.
French dairy farmers believe that they have not benefited enough from last year's high milk prices. Sodiaal has tried to enforce higher prices at 'grande distribution', as French retail is called, but with only limited success. We may increase the milk price for our members, but we are not allowed to pay the price of €1,00 for a liter of milk in the supermarket, Boucas explained the dilemma in an interview a few months ago. Overpriced milk is politically unsellable. Too bad for the farmers.

B milk price suddenly went through the roof
The high prices on the dairy market highlighted another sore point. Since 2011, Sodiaal has used a system with A and B prices, where the A price is the 'normal' milk price, paid for a more or less fixed volume, while the B price is usually lower and is determined on the basis of the prices for butter and skimmed milk powder. When prices for bulk dairy went through the roof last year, Sodiaal suddenly had to pay top price for B milk, while the A price lagged behind. That in itself gave rise to discussion within the cooperative, but the decision to stop the A and B system as of April 1 still came as a surprise to most members.

Stopped in 'good consultation'
Cooperative chairman Damien Lacombe reported that the decision had been made after careful consultation within the cooperative, but many members wondered who the consultation had been with. Biting reactions followed on social media, such as: "We have been able to get by with A and B prices for eleven years, but when it becomes expensive for the company, it suddenly has to be abolished."

Sodiaal hopes to be able to increase the (uniform) milk price further this year, but there is no guarantee that the supermarkets will agree to this. The further sustainability of dairy farming, with the associated costs, will also require a lot of extra effort. This is despite the fact that the company is certainly not having an easy time economically. In 2021, it recorded a positive result of around €10 million on a turnover of €4,7 billion.