Native to a commune near Troyes (Aube), Sophie Olivier left her region early on to study in Paris where she graduated with a Public Assistance Laboratory Technician's Diploma. Daughter of a carpenter, her first job was in the hospital sector before she discovered the world of the Ile-de-France market garden producers in 2002 on marrying Christophe Olivier, one of the two sons of Gilles Olivier, company director. In 2005, Sophie left her job at the hospital and joined the family company where she is now responsible for sales at Rungis, a job she performs with professionalism and assurance. Located in Villebon-sur-Yvette (Essonne), the company EARL G. Olivier et Fils goes back several generations, giving it the time to develop and hand down tried and tested business methods and values and build a solid reputation. Set out over fifty-odd hectares and operated along integrated farming principles, vegetable production takes up about thirty hectares, the remaining land being used to grow cereal crops, in order to ensure proper crop rotation. This is a family company comprising Gilles Olivier, the father and director, Michèle Olivier, his wife, responsible for deliveries, Christophe and Gilles, their two sons, Sophie, and ten employees (vegetable crop professionals). Christophe has a technical agricultural baccalaureate (option vegetable crops), as does Gilles who also holds a BTS (Higher Technician's Diploma) in the same subject. Ghislaine, the grandmother, for many years a well-known and much liked figure on the producers trading floor at Rungis who also managed a market stall at the Paris Halles, has since passed on her responsibilities to Sophie.

The company's flagship productions are salads (lettuce, Batavia, red and yellow oak leaf lettuce, romaine, and so on), spinach and white onions. The company sells between 20-25% of its production at Rungis and the rest through a range of distribution channels: major retail outlets in the Ile-de-France through purchasing cooperatives, wholesalers and semi-wholesalers at Rungis and directly to a few other supermarkets and hypermarkets. At Rungis Market, the customer base includes fruit and vegetable market stall retailers in Paris and its suburbs, at the Cours des Halles and medium to top-of-the-range restaurants. "Our trade is highly physical, and can be very tiring, explains Sophie Olivier. But working conditions have improved since they opened the new producers trading floor. The atmosphere here is really friendly and convivial. The expertise of the Ile-de-France producers contributes to building Rungis' reputation."