When was the company created ?

Desmettre was originally a Flemish company trading in fruit and vegetables, created by my great-grandfather and passed down to his son Pierre, my grandfather, after the First World War. My grandfather used to trade at the markets and trading floors in Lille and Valenciennes. One of his sons, Georges, used to visit the major ports such as Le Havre, Nantes, Rotterdam, etc. once a week when the boats came in, in order to buy fruits from southern hemisphere countries. Even way back then, Desmettre had already made a name for itself by supplying out-of-season produce

How did the company develop ?

My father, Emile, ran Desmettre in Lomme (Nord), while his two older brothers set up at Rungis in 1971 under the name Pierre Desmettre et Fils. At the time, the company counted eight store openings on the trading floor and sold tomatoes and out-of-season products by the pallet load. I arrived at Rungis at the age of 25 years, and started by selling out-of-season products over the phone. I then began selling on the trading floor, going on to work as a sales clerk, cashier, telephone clerk and administration clerk. My uncle Adolphe retired in 1991, at which point my father took over as President and CEO of the Rungis store, and I became Director. In 1998, I bought out my father's and uncle's share of the business, the latter being the CEO of the Desmettre store in Lomme. In 1999, I became President and CEO of the whole company. In 2001, we expanded the Lomme store and purchased three store openings from Fauchart, my neighbour at Rungis. The following year we purchased Poujade (eight store openings) at Rungis. In 2007, we continued the company's expansion by buying out Sodepa (three store openings), also at Rungis. This gave Desmettre Rungis a grand total of twenty-two store openings. Desmettre and Poujade merged in March 2008.

What is your development strategy ?

We have a two-pronged development strategy. Firstly, "specialist-discounter" sales on the trading floor: a professional providing a service to other professionals. Secondly, over the last five years we have been developing a specific import activity that is quite separate from our business on the trading floor. In fact, we will soon be introducing new strands in our development strategy for the second key direction. We import our products directly in order to avoid having to deal with middlemen. I know and have met every one of my producers the world over, and regularly travel in search of new contacts who can supply products of novel origins and varieties at market-adapted prices. For the last two years, we have been considering bridging the gap with upstream and production sectors. Our product range is based on an "extra" standard quality (promoting product freshness, origin, taste, etc.).

Do you have an export activity ?

Six months ago we started developing an export activity targeting both the EU and Central Europe. Even though the Central European market is still fairly disorganised, we have now started sending goods shipments there. Export represents an important line of business development, especially given the new market opportunities that are opening up for us (with Asia and the Middle East) in terms of production and consumption.

In your opinion, what is the outlook for the fruit and vegetable market ?

I remain optimistic as these products benefit from one very obvious fundamental quality. They are good for your health, and they taste good into the bargain. They also feature in the nutritional "plans" recommended by nutritionists and health authorities. Added to which, fruits and vegetables are best suited to meeting continuing consumer demand for better quality and better tasting foods. I genuinely believe in the retail trade, which is perfectly equipped to provide consumers with a food offer of better quality and greater diversity than that available in supermarkets and hypermarkets.

What do you think of Rungis Market ?

Rungis Market is a skills-based market where operators are grouped into sectors, therefore enabling them to provide a wide range of produce tailored to current demand. Competition and emulation are fundamental ingredients of the drive to develop both the market and the wholesalers that work there. Just like our company, Rungis Market is increasingly becoming a market of professionals targeting a professional customer base. We both have an excellent communications network and have both built up a solid reputation for the freshness and quality of our products. It is important to make sure people talk about this as it is a quality benchmark. While considerable efforts have been made in a number of areas, more could be done to make extra space available at the back of the buildings, especially as far as unloading operations are concerned. Lastly, it's a shame that the wholesalers were not able to benefit from the move to open the company up to new shareholders.