Translations

FLEURY MICHON devoted against over consumption of production resources

4. Environment

Green design

Sector Food-processing

Year 2014

Country France

Transmitter

Context

Fleury-Michon is a French family-owned company founded in 1905 and based in Vendée (France).. The main part of its revenue comes from the selling of prepared dishes and cooked meats in self-service stores in France (85%) and abroad (7%). The remainder comes from the outside home catering activity. Engaged since 2010 in CSR, Fleury-Michon has specifically defined a strategic policy on sustainable development in 2013. Besides quality and security, control over environmental impact is a priority action domain with 3 main lines: prevention against pollution, protection of the environment and sustainable use of the resources.

Objectives

Maximizing use of resources: (foodstuffs, additives and packaging)

Implement monitoring processes
Optimize raw material yield
Ensure traceability, quality and control of raw materials for packages, going beyond basic practical and legal prerequisite

APPROACH

Fleury-Michon implements resource maximization measures, especially consumer goods (food raw material and packages.

Concerning food raw materials, Fleury-Michon develops two main lines: maximization of raw material use and quality control. Therefore, Fleury-Michon is committing to a nutritional approach for a well-balanced and sustainable eating habits (1999), for a better life quality for allergic and food intolerant consumers (2003) and in favor of nutritional balance and consumer health with the Charter for nutritional progress (2010-2012): Policy of a sustainable supply (porc, fish from responsible fishing..) reduction of food additives (salt, others).
Significant human means are implemented to ensure food raw material quality: teams in charge of monitoring the Quality Management System and important means dedicated to purchase control : 10 people dedicated to purchase quality, analysis laboratory with 9 people, daily health controls…

Concerning packages, Fleury-Michon tries to reduce their packages environmental impact (weight reduction, recycled materials used). For instance, in 2013: replacement of PVC with PET, the latter being included in 6 production lines of ham packing. Among the means implemented to reduce the environmental impact of packages, there are important industrial investments and R&D projects (for the development of biosourced materials)

Best Practice spotted in 2014 by the World Forum for a Responsible Economy.

CONTRIBUTION TO COMPANY PERFORMANCE

Lower quantity of raw material used and better yield in terms of tons of raw materials used: 7982€/ton in 2012 and 8223€/ton in 2013.
Maximization of the production line thanks to the reduction of the packages weight/size
Consumer trust (transparency control and traceability of foodstuffs and material used for packaging in the production chain.)

Benefits

Maximization of food raw materials use: fight against food over-consumption (-2.1% in 2013) reduction of additives (f.ex salt) and better consumer trust and health: traceability, quality and control of raw materials.
Maximization of packages: packages size reduction for a large range of products, use of new materials (PET instead of PVC), waste reduction and consumer healthcare security.