The InVivo group is committed to the agricultural and food transition

The 2018-2019 financial year confirms the good momentum of the 2025 plan, which is being completed five years ahead of schedule. The InVivo group generated sales of €5.2 billion. 1.1 billion at 30 June 2019, more than doubling in five years. This is a very favourable situation for tackling the future and embarking on a new phase of growth, while the group will unveil its new 2030 by InVivo strategic plan at its convention on 18 December.

This plan, which naturally follows on from the 2025 plan, has one major objective: to lead the necessary transition in agriculture and food for cooperatives, farmers and consumers. To this end, this year InVivo has defined its raison d'être, strengthened its CSR policy, defined the 3rd way of agriculture supported by its subsidiary Bioline, and set up a flagship digital project for cooperatives: the Aladin.farm platform.

A solid financing base for the development of the group and its businesses

2018-2019 is a year of transition for InVivo. As announced last year, the group has initiated a major programme to transform its business model by reinvesting in its strategic businesses to modernise a more positive and competitive agriculture.

The group is now well positioned to enter a new phase of growth. Its turnover, which amounts to 5.2 billion euros, is stable. 347.7 million at 30 June 2019 (including the capital gain on the disposal of Neovia). This figure reflects a solid operational and financial performance, particularly in the Bioline and Retail perimeters. Bioline Group is driven by organic growth in France and internationally. In the InVivo Retail business, the results of Jardiland, acquired at the end of September 2018, and the first synergies expected from the merger with Gamm vert are on target.

The group's equity reached €1.1 billion this year, having more than doubled in five years. Net debt at 30 June 2019 was positive at €174.9 million, compared with net debt of €511.5 million at 30 June 2018. The leverage ratio is therefore -1.7 compared to 3.1 at 30 June 2018. This situation, which is very favourable for tackling the future, provides a solid financing base for the development of the group and its businesses.

The main achievements of the 2018-2019 financial year

During this financial year, the main operations carried out in the various business segments were highly structuring.

In the grains business, the creation of Grains Overseas in partnership with the Axéréal and NatUp cooperative groups is a first step towards strengthening the French wheat export sector.

By acquiring Jardiland and Bio & Co, InVivo Retail has invested to consolidate its position as leader in garden centres and to develop a local food retailing business that focuses on organic and local products.

In agriculture, the 2025 by InVivo plan set out the ambition to become a leader in biocontrol and agri-digital. Bioline by InVivo reached an important milestone in biocontrol this year with the creation of Bioline Iberia in Spain and the takeover of Sweet Briar's biocontrol business in the US. Bioline is now a global player in this market.

The creation of the InVivo Digital Factory and the launch of the Aladin.farm platform also marked an acceleration in the digitalisation of agriculture.
Lastly, InVivo Wine was reorganised and structured on the export side by taking over the direct management of the American and Asian subsidiaries of Vinadeis.

This year marks the end of the 2025 plan and the entry of InVivo into a new phase of growth and transformation. The year 2019 was devoted to writing the 2030 by InVivo strategic plan with the Board of Directors, employees and all the group's stakeholders. The challenge remains the same: to be able to feed more than 9 billion people in 2050 in quantity and quality, while preserving natural resources.

"The 2030 by InVivo strategic plan confirms the strategic shift taken by the group. Today, more than ever, we must support the ecological and technological transition of our activities, so that agricultural production becomes a major lever in the fight against climate change. Agriculture, viticulture and gardening are part of the solutions that will make it possible to reduce global warming and halt the decline in biodiversity, through their positive impact on carbon storage, soil quality and the preservation of biodiversity. By structuring our CSR policy and investing in new technologies and innovations we will provide solutions that will make it possible to achieve what today seems impossible. By putting food intelligence at the service of cooperatives and farmers, we will demonstrate that it is possible to produce more and better with fewer inputs and to meet the aspirations of citizens," says Thierry Blandinières, InVivo's CEO.

InVivo demonstrates its raison d'être and strengthens its CSR policy in the collective interest

As announced last year, 2019 will have enabled us to define the purpose of the group and its businesses, with the aim of gradually transforming the InVivo Group holding company and all its subsidiaries into mission-driven companies. InVivo's raison d'être is to unite cooperatives to sustainably transform agriculture and ensure food quality in France and around the world. InVivo meets this challenge through innovative and responsible solutions for the benefit of farmers and consumers. Through its actions, InVivo defends and transmits the meaning and cooperative values of its members.

InVivo, which has the unique status of a national union of agricultural cooperatives in France, brings together 201 member cooperatives, representing more than half of the farmers in France. As such, its responsibilities extend far beyond its own activities. For Thierry Blandinières: "InVivo's ambition is to participate in the transformation of society. Agriculture is at the heart of today's major global challenges and the status of a company with a mission is an opportunity for our group to reconcile profitability and social impact objectives, to combine our cooperative values with a definition of the company that is consistent with today's challenges.

Corporate Social Responsibility has been integrated as a performance driver since the 2025 strategic plan by InVivo. As a driver of development and innovation, it permeates all of the group's activities, with the objective of systematically achieving triple performance - economic, social and environmental. The 2030 by InVivo project further emphasises this commitment. This year, InVivo published its non-financial performance statement for the first time. The work carried out on this occasion, in particular the materiality analysis, enabled us to determine the priority issues for InVivo, to define progress indicators, to formalise the CSR policy and to redeploy it in a more structured manner.

The commitments of the group's businesses for 2030

Bioline by InVivo: agricultural transformation to support the food transition
The third way of farming has been mapped out. It is an agricultural sector that meets the quality requirements of consumers and is increasingly reflected in the specifications of food manufacturers, through :

• An agriculture of trust, leader of responsible chains that places the consumer and his expectations at the heart of the agricultural value chain to provide him with healthy, safe and quality food, with complete traceability and transparency. To achieve this objective, we must go from the plate to the field, along the supply chains (field crops, market gardening, wine), by constructing production specifications that meet the expectations of consumers, customers and citizens.
• An agriculture of diversity and proximity that proposes innovative solutions for all types of agriculture (conventional, organic, intensive, food-producing, rural, urban, etc.), in each of their territories and in each of their sectors with a view to their transition or acceleration towards a more responsible and economically viable agriculture for farmers, in France and internationally.
• An (agri)culture of results that will make it possible to feed 10 billion human beings on the planet and to prove the promises made to customers by agri-food partners in order to deliver a finalized and certified consumer benefit (zero residue, zero carbon, fair remuneration of the farmer, etc.).
• A systemic agriculture which implies working on the combination, integration and synergy of solutions because there will be fewer and fewer unique solutions and one best way. The most efficient systems will result from combinations and associations based on the study of interdependencies within a systemic framework. Tomorrow's agriculture will require more and more science and digital technology.

InVivo Retail: becoming the European leader in responsible garden centres
InVivo Retail aims to become a European leader in responsible garden centres, with a platform of general garden centre brands and hyper-specialist brands, with a target of 2,000 points of sale. InVivo Retail is building a new business model for garden centres by making them attractive and popular all year round.
InVivo Retail's strategic development priorities:

• Structuring of complete and hyper-performing supply chains (from product design to customer service) in four markets: plants, pets, food and lifestyle;
• Consolidation of leadership in the garden and petcare markets;
• Development of a food sector focused on a local and organic offer (Frais d'ici, Bio&Co) present in the outlets of the generalist brands Jardiland and Gamm vert and in dedicated sales outlets.
• Convergence of the offer and creation of own brands to improve performance and customer satisfaction;

InVivo Retail is also considering the specialisation of its brands with the creation of a main brand for garden centres for the general public, with the largest number of outlets in France and Europe, and a rural and agricultural brand with a regional presence.
Its performance levers:

• An assertive CSR position with strong commitments: aiming for 0 sourced petroleum plastics by 2030, promoting sustainable management of natural resources or eliminating food and plant waste.
• Operational excellence
• Omnichannelity: with the implementation of a phygital strategy for each of its retail concepts.
• National and international development.

InVivo Wine: a major operator in the wine sector, from upstream to downstream
InVivo Wine aims to become a leading, sustainable and integrated group, in tune with global markets and benefiting from synergies within the InVivo Group.
InVivo Wine will continue to pursue its external growth strategy in order to fully deploy its innovation and upmarket strategy and be able to offer long-term outlets to French wine cooperatives.
InVivo Wine's 3 business lines:

• Brands: create strong brands in line with consumer expectations.
• Distribution: control its omnichannel and multi-country distribution: mass retail, selective distribution and direct sales, in Europe, the USA and Asia.
• Services: secure supplies and support the transformation of the wine industry.

InVivo Wine also supports the ecological transition and prepares the wine industry and the regions for climate change. This involves taking better account of environmental factors, favouring short circuits and using digital technology and precision agriculture to promote sustainable wine production, including organic wine. This progress approach is being implemented in each wine region with precise objectives for 2030.

Aladin.farm: the genius of agriculture and farmers

Aladin.farm is a genuine French alternative to digital commerce offered to farmers. It was created with the cooperatives and their farmers to support and accelerate the transformation of the agricultural world and prepare the future of agriculture.
Designed to support the cooperative in implementing its multi-channel approach to proximity with its farmers, Aladin.farm offers all cooperatives a turnkey solution to accelerate its own digital transformation.

Aladin.farm: 100% Coop, 100% co-constructed!
This platform was developed in partnership with nine cooperatives spread across the whole of France: Agora, EMC2, Groupe Dauphinoise, Maïsadour, NatUp, Noriap, Ocealia, Uneal and Val de Gascogne; its objective being to be 100% aligned with the needs of farmers and technicians.
Aladin.farm® currently covers more than 50,000 farmers in France with its pilot cooperatives and aims to address all 201 InVivo member cooperatives.
Plant health, biosolutions, seeds, fertilisers and services are the first ranges to be launched on Aladin.farm, which will eventually cover 100% of farmers' needs and services in terms of farm management. Aladin.farm is the power of a national platform with local offers managed by each cooperative for its own members.

Aladin.farm as a vector for the third way of agriculture
Beyond a purchasing platform integrating the specificities of the cooperative world, Aladin.farm is the promise that a different kind of agriculture is possible by putting forward alternative practices and professional content to build the third way of agriculture. Aladin is positioned at the heart of the changes in the French agricultural model.