Plant-based alternatives: Sojasun and Sojade brands want to go to seed

This is not the best chapter in the family success story of the small Breton industrialist who became a pioneer of plant-based products in France. The manufacturer of Sojasun yogurts and their organic version Sojade, the Olga group (formerly Triballat-Noyal) separated from its plant-based catering brand (steak, ready meals) in 2024. In total, the group of 1,350 employees with a turnover of around 345 million euros for the 2022-2023 financial year sold around 15% of its business (caterer and cheese shops) to several players in the sector. Even if the employees affected by the sale were able to be rehoused, the group experienced many voluntary departures last year and a social plan in the summer of around twenty positions, according to CFDT union representative Christopher Roy and CSE secretary Simone Porcher. "We can understand the company's strategy of divesting itself of its unprofitable activities, but it was hard socially," they emphasize. "There was the arrival of big players like Herta [on vegetable charcuterie, editor's note] . It required too much investment" to stay in the race, justifies the co-manager of CSR at Olga, Cécile Legrand. Marginal a few years ago, the offer of alternatives to meat products - which can be called "steaks" or "sausages", as decided by the Council of State on January 28 - or dairy products, has exploded.

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