1. 5756
industry insights / summer 2014 / companies
Transition
Manager
Guyomarc’h is a well-established company in the field
of animal nutrition, founded by Jean Guyomarc’h in the
cultural region Brittany, France, in 1954. The company
is on Romania’s market since 1993, at first through a
joint-stock company, settled in Craiova, being at that
time specialized in premixes for zootechny (vitamin
mixtures and other essential substances which, combined
with forages, constitute the food for livestock).
O
ver the last decade, Guyomarc’h
evolved, being taken over by Evialis,
then integrated into InVivo group.
Currently, InVivo
group owns a factory that
produces animal nutrition
products in Cioplani, being
a majority shareholder of a
factory in Bacãu as well.
Mister Marc Pascal Huot,
the current manager of
Guyomarc’h, has been in
the French company for
less than a year. But he is
not by far a newcomer: he
has been established in
Romania for 25 years, time
in which he provided consultance to several
investors in Brittany, including the ones from
Guyomarc’h, enjoying good realations with
them. And when things took a wrong turn in
the Romanian branch, Mr. Huot was asked to
fix them, being issued a transaction manager
warrant.
Probably one of the most
enduring expatriates in
Romania, living here since
the end of 1989, Marc
Huot had all the time in
the world to understand
the way things work and
form his own opinion
about management,
the educational system
and the local business
enviroment. Kind and
open-hearted, he does not
restrain himself from expressing his personal
opinions - sensible on top of that - covering
delicate topics in a tasteful and airy humor.
Guyomarc'h
The total production capacity
of the two fabrics is of
max.
4.500
tons per month
IIHow long have you been working in
Guyomarc’h?
Marc Pascal Huot: Since November 2013. But I have
known the company for 25 years, I offered them
consultance in the beginning as well, when they decided
to invest in Romania. I came here last year because
the company had started to have problems, and had to
recover significant amounts of money from the market
and the level of sales was way too low.
What measures did you take to increase the
profitability of the company?
We have immediately discovered the cause of the
company’s problems: the flawed management. The
management of the society was working only on a certain
market experience, but it wasn’t enough.
The first measure I took to increase the company’s
efficiency, and it wasn’t one of the most pleasant to me,
was to make important (though not numerous) personnel
reductions, some among the most important positions.
Another thing that needs to be done as soon as possible
and which we are presently working on is integrating
the three brands – InVivo, Evialis and Guyomarc’h –,
currently existing a confusion among clients and being
extremly hard to obtain a coherent communication.
Marc Hublot

2. 5958
industry insights / summer 2014 / companies
What are the products which
Guyomarc’h produces in Romania?
We manufacture premixes, forage and forage
additives for poultry, swine, ruminants and
even for carp farms. Our total production
capacity is of more than 4.000 tons of
premixes monthly, 1.200-1.500 tons at the
factory in Cioplany and 3.000 tons in Bacau.
Is all this production intended for the
internal market, or do you also produce
for export?
Until my arrival in Guyomarc’h, the entire
production was directed towards the internal
market. For us, the most important external
market is that of the Arab countries, which
have a significant production of sheep. But
there is a problem – those non-EU countries
have to recover VAT, which is not that easy
to be done. We intend to sell in countries
such as Bulgaria, Belarus, Syria, Iran, Egypt
– Romania’s traditional tranding partners.
Another market with potential is the Republic
of Moldova, where there are many breeders of
quail and animals raised for their fur.
What are the advantages of using
premixes and forage additives in
animal feed?
What we actually offer to our clients are some
services, a certain recipe. Our client needs
his animals to gain weight in the shortest
time, with the smallest ration of food and
the lowest costs. Our products are aimed to
limit mortality, to strenghten the health of
the animals and raise them in conditions that
should provide satefy for our consumers.
We have our own nutritionist, who prepairs
the recipes according to the achieved forage
and the species or the breed. According to the
forage characteristics, we add the necessary
substances – proteines, vitamins, cellulose
etc. What the client wants also matters. We,
for instance, have contracts with different
milk producers and we ask them: “What
do you want to obtain?” “We want a bigger
milk production without fats”. And then
we provide them a personalized recipe for
lactation growth. Everything depends on
animal nutrition. What we do is similar to the
activity of a sporty doctor who, with the help
of nutrition, increases the performances of an
athlete.
The genetic material is also important. In
Romania no one invested in the growth of
piglets for sale, for example. As a result,
farmers buy piglets from the Netherlands
or from Germany, while the quality varies
according to each’s budget. Everything was
thought for intensive fattening, but because
there has been no investment in a quality
genetic material, there was a high rate of
mortality and many businesses gone bankrupt.
And what would be the risks of using
premixes and additives in animal feed?
There are no risks to consumers. We are
talking about some food supplements made of
natural products.
“Supermarkets
settle
the prices”
But does the taste of meat change?
It changes, of course it does. Between a
pig in a farm that reaches 100 kilograms in
a few months and the artisans who practice
zootechny in a year of course the taste of meat
is different; and the price changes as well. You
can buy a black pig from France that weighs
120 kilograms and was raised in a year and
a half, eating nuts, acorns etc., but that one
costs 1.000 euros. The problem is that the
prices are established, in Romania and in other
European countries alike, by supermarkets.
Which are Guyomarc’h’s main clients in
Romania?
Our main clients are forage factories and large
farms that have integrated forage factories and
can make the premix mixtures themselves,
based on our provided recipe. It is important
that those farms have the necessary equipment
to mix the fodder following the recipe, because
there still are those who work with the barrow
and the shovel. We have a sales department
consisting of around 20 vets, who contact
potential clients directly. We sell forages
and premixes to the farms directly. Yet we
have recently launched a product special for
distribution in retail network: forages packed
in 5 kilogram bags, available in veterinary
pharmacies. With these products we target
individual farmers.
We also provide products for animal hygiene
– especially for disinfecting the halls – a
general disinfection is mandatory each time
the animal population is changed, because
otherwise the animals might get sick and
there is the risk of mortality growth. Animal
nutrition and hygiene are essential for farmers
and consumers alike.
MPH on human
resources in
Romania:
“Unfortunately, there aren’t any
schools of veterinary technicians left.”
“The hardest thing to do is finding
commercial agents – there are few
the ones who have the education and
necessary skills.”
“Romanian managers should learn
and have patience, think long-term.”