That adjustment included being able to invest more in areas such as marketing to try to support the company’s stable of brands, which also includes Allos breakfast cereals, Bonneterre pasta and Abbot Kinney’s plant-based yogurt. “We tried and we lost share dramatically and I think the analysis we made with the board at the time was we needed a few years to adjust to the new market circumstances and then, maybe one day, we would see whether we’ll come back or not to the stock exchange.” I was not equipped for that,” he tells Just Food via video call. I had Mondelez on chocolate, coming my way in organic chocolate. On plant-based drinks, I had Alpro acquired by Danone. On organic tea, I had Pukka acquired by Unilever. Larger companies were investing more in the then Wessanen’s core areas. The company, he argues, was in a market where the “competitive intensity” for the business was increasing. He’s still at the helm now and insists the takeover was the right move for the business, which has since been renamed Ecotone. Christophe Barnouin was CEO at the time, having been promoted in 2013 from a role as MD of the company’s French and Italian operations. It’s coming up to two years since Wessanen was delisted from the Euronext stock exchange.
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