Born into a farming family in Epieds-en-Beauce (20 km from Orléans), Denis Pellé (54 years old) moved with his family to Bourg-la-Reine (Hauts-de-Seine) in the 1960s, where his father changed trades to become a baker.

"The youngest of four children, I started out in the business on leaving secondary school, joining a company selling lamb at Rungis. After two years in the cutting, sorting and meat reception department, I went to Germany (Frankfurt and Stuttgart) to learn about slaughterhouse techniques, pork, Bavarian beef, and so on, and learned German along the way. I came back to France in 1979 as a sales assistant with Morey et Fils, a V2M company, where I stayed for the next two years. In 1985, the managers asked me to become an partner. Specialising in pork and beef, the company changed its name to IP Viandes. We were three partners until 2000. After the reorganisation, I became sole manager. While beef remains a fairly buoyant market, pork is more difficult to manage. Nevertheless, this is just a short-term issue and the market is becoming easier to read. Despite this, our beef sales largely exceed those for pork. As one of the only companies specialising in Bavarian beef - the pure Simmenthal breed - we joined the German Ministry of Agriculture in running informational campaigns at the time of the 1996 BSE crisis to try and protect our sales and market share. Bavarian beef is of higher quality than the breeds in northern Germany; its meat is marbled, tasty, with a marked specificity, well known and recognised by professionals. We sell 4,000 tonnes per year (70% carcasses and 30% vacuum-packed). Our annual sales break down as 60% beef and 40% pork.

Following the last two crises, the market for pork appears to be picking up speed again and we hope to increase our sales by 5% to 8% over the next three years. We sell beef and cured meats to retail butchers (50%), semi-wholesalers (40%) and restaurants (10%, vacuum-packed), and pork to small butcher-charcutiers and semi-wholesalers. Our company has a 30-strong workforce, and I am assisted by Mr. Louis Hervet, manager of the pork department, Mr. Loïc Lecardinal, manager of the beef department, Maria on sales, and Ms Delmotte, my polyglot assistant who has been with the company for fifteen years now. Apart from running the company, I often meet suppliers to follow up on products, develop our business relationships and find new business prospects(customers, suppliers and products); an activity essential to the company's progress. I have been at Rungis for 35 years now. As far as I am concerned it is the only market in world offering such a rich diversity of produce. Rungis is like the national beef herd; it has a rich and varied quality. This advantage should enable us to attract ever increasing numbers of people to Rungis."