Translations

CANDIA (Sodiaal cooperative), a communication at the service of consumers

1. Organizational Governance

Sector Food-processing

Year 2020

Country France

Transmitter

Context

Candia is a company belonging to the first French dairy cooperative group, Sodiaal, created in 1971. In France, it works with 18,000 breeders and has a turnover of 1.2 billion euros in 2018. Aware of today's challenges, Candia has decided to align committed communication with its CSR strategy, in order to explain its identity in simple words and show its customers that it listens to their needs, without seeking to create new ones.

Objectives

Going towards more proximity and trust with the customer
Managing transparent and useful communication
Valuing and highlighting virtuous behaviours
Repositioning the brand to serve the consumer

APPROACH

Two steps were necessary in the implementation of more responsible communication at Candia.

On the one hand, the implementation of this sustainable communication is first and foremost the work of Candia's Top Management, whose desire was to align external communication with the corporate culture. This means that the principles put forward in advertising are consistent with internal policies. In other words, it is no longer a question of having a multitude of strategies for each axis (marketing, communication, innovation, CSR, ...) but rather a common strategy for all these axes.

On the other hand, still in the field of communication, this time more focused on product display, Candia is working for greater transparency in the dairy industry, even before the coming into force of the Agec law in January 2022. The idea is to join forces with the big names in the dairy industry to study the solutions to be put in place to better inform consumers.

Candia has been able to question its collective narrative which, contrary to traditional advertising, is anchored in time in terms of communication. Their latest ad goes back to their fundamentals: explaining who they are, with words that speak to them and their consumers.

CONTRIBUTION TO COMPANY PERFORMANCE

Revenue increase of 1.1% in 2019
8% increase in EBITDA in 2019
2/3 of current income redistributed to farmers
2.9% increase in productivity (measured in liters/hour) in 2019
Increase in density (measured in L/km) by 1.2% in 2019
25 medals were won by the Group's products in the Dairy Products competition at the International Agricultural Show at été́.

Benefits

Candia's communication empowers consumers by allowing them to access information in a transparent manner to encourage consumer behavior
Going towards new modes of consumption (rental, second hand, repair, circular, collaborative etc...)
Environmental communication is also a lever to set the company in motion so that it can eco-design its products, which is positive for the environment