OVERVIEW BY CHRISTOPH BÜREN Overview by Christoph Büren, President of VIVESCIA Group Four years ago you started a process of developing and transforming VIVESCIA. Is it advancing in the way and at the pace you intended? Yes, and that’s very satisfying for the board, given the back-to-back crises of the last four years. This year again – like most of our industry peers – we had to contend with extremely volatile markets, historically high in昀氀ation, and a great deal of economic and geopolitical uncertainty. Our efforts are gathering momentum with every passing year. The Ma Coop 2025 programme has taken our Cooperative forward and established a solid foundation for 2030, helping member-farmers in our territories lay the groundwork to future-proof their businesses. These farm managers are facing considerable challenges in terms of both environmental impact and 昀椀nancial performance. Ma Coop 2025 provides a framework for launching new projects and tackling a range of concerns, running the gamut from climate adaptation, agronomic innovation, and creating value through new supply agreements (such as that of our emblematic Francine brand), revolutions in logistics and our farm delivery policy, to new services, like the online sales platform we launched this year. It’s a similar picture across our food processing businesses, which have seen progress on all fronts. Now our fundamentals are sound – after four years of hard work, we’ve managed to turn things around. We’re pleased to see growing collaboration between our agricultural and processing businesses. Our sustainable development policy, LINK, is closely entwined with the Group’s overall strategy, injecting fresh energy and driving innovation. It runs through all our businesses, especially where there’s a focus on climate change, decarbonisation or biodiversity. The Group is growing into itself more with each passing day, revealing and asserting what makes us who we are. Let’s zoom in specifically on the 2022-2023 financial year. Do the results reflect the transformation that’s underway? Given the unsettled economic backdrop, I think it’s fair to say that our Group has shown impressive resilience, as they say. We managed to improve our 昀椀nancial results, as measured by EBITDA, exceeding our budget to reach almost €200 million this year. The Group also distinguished itself through various development projects and new initiatives. Thanks to rigorous management and our tremendously energetic and creative workforce, we’re able to run innovative projects, which make good economic sense, in a joined-up way. For instance, we’ve made several investments to drive our growth, including a new malt house in Mexico (€112 million), a new logistics platform for our centre of excellence in viennoiserie production at Romans- sur-Isère (€10 million), a new production line serving our industrial biotechnology operations (€8 million), and a new production platform for wet compound feed intended for livestock (€2.2 million). We’ve invested a further €88 million in modernising our silos and upgrading our information systems, as well as developing online services like mobile apps and digital storefronts – including France’s 昀椀rst virtual marketplace for artisan bakers. 4