Reflets Magazine #155 | Cécile Béliot (E97), CEO of Bel Group

On the cover of Reflets Mag #155, Cécile Béliot (E97) explains how she combines sustainability with profitability at the food group Bel, which, through iconic brands such as The Laughing Cow, Babybel, Kiri, Boursin, or Pom’ Potes, employs more than ten thousand people in some sixty subsidiaries and sells its products in more than 120 countries.  If you’d like to read the next editions, sign up now!   

Reflets Magazine: What is your group’s business model?

Cécile Béliot: Our model is to understand our role, our duty in terms of major societal concerns around food, which is a different form of goods from the rest. For us, food is primarily a human and fundamental right; that’s how we see our mission in any case. What we all realise today is that the current food model will not feed ten billion people in 2050. It’s absolutely impossible because we won’t have the water or the necessary land without exhausting the planet. We could even go so far as to say that the current model is already incapable of properly feeding the entire population of the world. At present, a billion people suffer from obesity, not to mention all the diseases linked to bad diet, such as diabetes or heart disease, which are genuine epidemics. In contrast to these billion people suffering from bad diet, you have another billion suffering from malnutrition, so our model no longer feeds everyone. Take the example of Indonesia, a country I’ve just come back from, which is among the South-East Asian countries with the strongest growth and witnessing the emergence of a large middle class who now have access to packaged food. Ten years ago, Indonesia’s epidemiological data pointed to severe malnutrition in children lacking iron, proteins and all the minerals required for healthy growth. 10 years later, a new study indicates not only that none of these deficiencies have been resolved, but at the same time, the number of kilocalories consumed has skyrocketed. These are empty calories, however, from fat and sugar. As a result, Indonesia now has both malnourished and obese children, and this is a food model which is spreading throughout the world. The Bel group has a role to play in these huge food challenges, because we form a part of that chain. 

RM: So what is this role?

C. Béliot: We must strive every day to show that it is possible to feed children with healthy, sustainable and affordable food. To that end, we focus on three key pillars: the first is to promote a healthier and more sustainable diet, composed of fruit, vegetables or legumes. Our upbeat and popular brands can help facilitate this transition. The second is to shift agriculture as far upstream as possible to regenerative farming, because a healthy soil captures carbon more effectively, retains water, preserves biodiversity and ultimately produces better yields. For more than 10 years, Bel has been working with the WWF, along with our partner breeders and tree growers worldwide, in implementing sustainable upstream dairy and fruit production everywhere we operate. The third pillar is to prevent food waste, because one third of the food produced is thrown away every year. Our portion model is very practical in this regard, because it preserves the product and its storage. You never throw away a portion of Pom’Potes or Laughing Cow! 

RM: This is what naturally defines your business model, then.

C. Béliot: The real specificity of the Bel business model is to steer the company on two wheels, the wheel of profitability and that of sustainability, which are both equally important. My shareholders’ concern is resilience, the next generation. And when you work for the coming generation, you understand that profitability is only a means to achieve sustainability. Steering the company on two wheels means that we have a dual accountability, that each product head working for Bel will receive, like in any other company, their monthly profit & loss statement, and at the same time their carbon impact, which is deducted from their P&L balance. The measuring of our impact is not just a simple reporting aid, it’s a genuine tool to steer the company and our investment projects. Our decisions and daily operations incorporate this new understanding of our impact, and on all levels of the company. We developed a positive impact index to reflect our commitment and assess our CSR performance on the bases of criteria in line with our mission, i.e. our environmental footprint, our employees’ engagement, our ability to offer products for everyone, the implementation of regenerative farming techniques and our customers’ engagement. 

RM: Why did you remove the role of CFO in the company?

C. Béliot: We didn’t really remove it, we put it on two wheels because of our business model. What is the role of finance in the company, ultimately? It’s the pilot. The financial operator defines the framework of the conversation on performance and sets up the steering process to ensure targets are met. My role is to create value, but the question is, how do we define value creation? For us, the real objective is sustainability; finance is just a tool to help us get there. When Antoine Fiévet was still CEO of the company and he made the decision to place the CSR teams under the responsibility of our chief financial officer, who became chief global impact officer, it was to make it obvious for the whole organisation that value creation at Bel depended both on finance and sustainability. What is truly wonderful is the huge extent to which this change boosted our ability to operationalise our CSR. Because, suddenly, the role of what was called CFO and became global impact, put all its energy into changing conversations at all levels of the company. That’s why we continue to be pioneers and we have succeeded in accelerating our progression with regard to attaining our dual objectives. 

RM: What are your aims for international growth, and are you impacted by current world tensions?

Interview by François de Guillebon, Chief Editor at Reflets Magazine

Translation of an excerpt of an article published in Reflets Magazine #155. Read a preview. Get the next issues  (in French).

Picture : © Christophe Meireis