The co-operative identity

A company of people, the cooperative enterprise is distinguished by the specificity of its governance and by the sustainable development that it carries in its genes. These characteristics outline an operation with multiple advantages for our members and our customers:

Agricultural co-operatives form a pillar of the French economy:

an 86 billion turnover
40% of the French agro-food sector
2 600 businesses
75% of the farmers
16 500 employees
One food brand in three
One bottle of wine in two
The leading employer in rural areas

Source HCCA

An original style of governance

The Grap’Sud co-operative group is managed collectively by a supervisory board and a management board, made up of members who are elected and responsible for the choices that concern the group’s future. The president, as their spokesman,defines the collective project that the director is responsible for putting into action in the company’s daily management.

A bond between upstream and downstream

The members have the opportunity to bring their grape marcs, their wines lees and their wines to their distillery which, in return, is under an obligation to ensure a quality service in respect of treatment of those products. The Grap’Sud group, focusing on its markets and its customers’ expectations, organises the collection, the processing and the packaging of the products to optimise their recovery and to facilitate their marketing. The gains in productivity that are thus obtained enable our group to be highly competitive in the arena of international competition. This unique bond between the producers and their co-operative company is reassuring for the origin and the traceability of our productions.

A sustainable business

Thanks to this original business model and their territorial attachments, the agricultural co-operatives are protected from delocalisation and takeovers.

The partner co-operative’s dual nature

The co-operative group members are both holders of the company’s capital and users of its services (collection, processing and marketing of the agricultural production, supply and services for the operation, etc.). This means that they are simultaneously owners, customers and suppliers of the company.

A “non-capitalist” principle

In a co-operative, the objective is to provide a service at the best price and to ensure the optimum remuneration for the partner co-operatives. The capital is therefore only a means to finance the group. The surpluses achieved are, for the most part, reinvested in the company’s development.

Core values

Solidarity is a core value for our co-operative. Solidarity between the members who share the fruits of the company’s activity but who also collectively bear the risks. Solidarity, too, between the generations who succeed each other in the group. The collective reserves are non-distributable and so each generation creates capital for the next.