“Thierry Cochet, 47, lives at Grisy-Suisnes (Seine-et-Marne), in the little village where his ancestor Christophe Cochet, Admiral Louis-Antoine de Bougainville’s gardener, planted the Ile-de-France Region’s first rose garden in 1802, and was the first to promote the outdoor rose as a cut flower.

"We have always been in the flower trade, except for my grandfather on my father’s side, who was a jeweller. My father Gérard, after an apprenticeship in jewellery, came back to horticulture. As a grower of bulb plants he was famous in Rungis for his superb gladioli. Several months ago he wrote a prettily illustrated book celebrating Grisy-Suisnes, called Grisy-Suisnes, its History and its Roses. The last rose grower in the Cochet family at Grisy-Suisnes is my cousin Alain and his wife Monique. After secondary school and the Igny School of Horticulture (Essonne) where I served my apprenticeship and graduated with honours, I went away for a year, first to the Netherlands where I worked in a bulb plant growing company, and then to England in a bed and houseplant firm. After my military service I worked for ten years at La Ferme des Roses first with M. Useille and then with M. Patrick Soret. In 1989, I set up the Thierry Cochet Company on 16 m2 of premises, which soon became too small. I bought 10 m2 from a neighbour, and as Semmaris required me to take over the combined utilities, I upscaled to 32 m2. In 1992, I took over part of the commercial premises of my father, who left the Rungis International Market in 2002 at the age of 74. After the restructuring of C1, the company went on to occupy 240 m2 of premises.

I have five full-time employees and two part-timers on Thursdays; an efficient and highly professional team it’s a pleasure to work with. More than 50% of the flowers we commercialise are French, mostly from small producers in the Var (Galilee anemones, buttercups, peonies, etc.) and 40% are imported from Holland. The French flowers remain our beacon product, with 1.2 million anemones, 950 000 ranunculi and 350 000 peonies. In addition, we have an exceptional range of roses, and all the flowers needed for a fine florist’s stock, including rare and very rare varieties. In a competitive market we have to be constantly on top. Which is why we supply everything all the time. In Paris, the Ile-de-France Region and the provinces, our customers we partly supply are shops (81%) market stalls (18%), and top restaurants (1%). Rungis is a constantly evolving strategic centre that owes its perpetuity to the quality and professionalism of the operators.