The agro-food industry in Burgundy and in Franche-Comté is based on a structure essentially composed of small of medium-sized businesses: 60 % of firms have less than 20 employees.
The regions are also home to subsidiaries of a number of multinational corporations such as Amora-Maille (Unilever), Merck Médication Familiale (Merck) and Seb SAS (the SEB Group). These companies add considerable weight to the momentum of innovation thanks to their considerable resources in R & D and their international presence.
The member-companies of Vitagora are organised into “company clusters” which unite the economic players of a particular sector of the agro-food or health industries. This structure encourages the emergence of projects by engaging a study into the interests common to the whole cluster, and also by creating the possibility of pooling resources and investments.
Wheat-Breadmaking
Wine & Vine
Health & Nutrition
Condiments, Fruit and Vegetables
Cheeses
Urban Water
Cooking and Appliances
The Vitagora “matrix” remains open to new clusters, in particular meat-products…
Some of these clusters (Wine & Vine, Wheat and Bread-making, Health & Nutrition) have created, or are in the process of creating, their own legal entities in order to better manage the specific projects of their sector.
The clusters unite, according to the case, the various economic players of the different stages of production and commercialisation: businesses, cooperatives, professional organisations and unions – from the agricultural preliminary stage through to the consumer end stage.
Their overall ambition is to undertake collective actions of innovation and of development, aiming to add value as well having a positive effect on turnover and employment.
Vitagora also has the opportunity to reinforce existing collaborative projects involving the whole sector that have been undertaken in Burgundy and Franche-Comté for a number of years, for example, the Wheat and Bread-making and AOC Cheese sectors. These actions bear witness to a strong local culture of inter-company partnerships, aiming for the attainment of significant market shares, in particular of export markets.
One of the emblematic cooperative actions has been the creation of the company Bourgogne, Terre de Culture, a joint venture between Dijon Céréales, the Elancia group and Eurogerm. This company pools R & D investments, boosting each of the partners in their respective areas and markets, and in their international ambitions.
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