Located in the hills of southeast France, our manufacturing plant La Sarrée sets the benchmark for MANE in terms of technology innovation. The plant, which together with our Notre-Dame site, forms the Group’s combined headquarters at Le Bar-sur-Loup, is MANE’s largest production facility to produce and deliver flavours and fragrances in the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East, and Africa).
“The La Sarrée plant in Le Bar-sur-Loup is the perfect backdrop for taking creative ideas and transforming them, for example, into products for our customers and raw materials for our subsidiaries, but not only. Ever since it was completed in 1992, La Sarrée has been the Group’s model for building new sites in France and the rest of the world. It’s the plant that we always try to replicate.”
That is how Thomas Rodi, Industrial Director of the site, describes this impressive complex. He took over the role in 2021 after working at the plant for 20 years.
The production site was built at the start of a new era for MANE, when international development accelerated and the Group grew to an industrial scale. Its mission is two-fold: shipping to customers within the EMEA region while also supporting the growth and development of the Group by supplying its subsidiaries with high-tech products and raw materials produced at the historic Notre-Dame plant, just a few kilometres away.
Flavours and fragrances for the food industry and consumer goods
Some 750 employees work at La Sarrée, including 550 production and quality control staff and 150 supply chain team members (order processing for customers and subsidiaries, inventory control and shipping activities). Another 50 people work in quality assurance, maintenance, administration.
The plant hosts two main and distinct activities:
- Flavours, used in the food and beverage industry, comprising products in liquid form, powder (by mixing, atomisation) or capsules.
- Fragrances, products in liquid form, for fine fragrances and consumer goods for multiple final application like air care, household products, laundry, detergents, skin care, etc.
- Transmission: the expertise of past and present, in a transversal manner, across the 39 countries in which MANE has a presence
- Growth in total independence.
Around 3,000 different raw materials are used each year to produce 10,000 references for the Group's customers. Half of the flavouring production by weight is in liquid form, sold directly to customers or re-engineered in other plant workshops. The re-engineering includes powder production by blending and spray drying (a process derived from the milk industry, where the aromatical liquid base is sprayed into a chamber and then heated to evaporate the water, leaving only the powder). The latter is either sold to customers or reprocessed into granules form for use in other applications.
Innovation: The engine of growth
“We have more than doubled production volume over the last ten years, going from 9,000 tons to 20,000 tons of perfumes and flavourings produced on a yearly basis,” explains Thomas Rodi. This doubling of production was achieved thanks to the Group’s innovation strategy, which is based on two pillars:
Since 1995, the production site has grown to accommodate new processes and technologies, with several expansions carried out in different phases between 2003 and 2012. In particular, investments were made in new devices between 2010 and 2012 to increase technological and production capacity. In 2003, the Jungle Essence™ technology was made available to the teams of the ingredients department. Two new buildings have also been erected since 2018, including a reception centre that hosts events for both internal purposes and external stakeholders.
Finally, a new location has been inaugurated in 2023: a 10,000 m2 space called the Innovation Centre Sarrée (in French, Centre Innovation Sarrée, CIS) which will house a part of the research and development department. With an increase in space and new equipment, the goal of the new site is to support development and innovation over the coming decades.
“The purpose of La Sarrée plant is to support the development of MANE within France as well as on an international scale. Twenty years ago, there were 750 team members in France and 1,500 worldwide. Today, we have grown to 1,800 in France and more than 7,500 worldwide. From this historic site, we can reach over 120 different countries,” says the site’s Industrial Director.
Innovation remains one of the main drivers of the Group’s strategy. The strength of this conviction inspired the launch of the Cap Innovation Operations 2024 (CIO 2024) initiative, a project spearheaded by the operations - manufacturing and supply chain - management departments. “To continue to grow and maintain a competitive edge, we must adapt how we work while maintaining our motivation, independence, and quality of life. It is a collective continuous improvement project that supports MANE's strategy and growth.”
Safety and sustainable development
These technical and technological innovations also have an increasingly important bearing on safety and sustainable development in the years to come. On the safety side, La Sarrée is SEVESO hight level classification. This high threshold naturally calls for a substantial investment plan for the safety configuration of the site, but also request to accelerate the dissemination of and adherence to safety culture among employees. Technological investments have also been made to secure our teams – last one, the purchase of robot palletisers – to eliminate the need for employees in the most critical handling operations.
Finally, in terms of CSR, strong commitments have been made to reduce water and energy consumption by 2030 while boosting waste recovery and employee training. “We have added a new stage to the onboarding of each employee: a half-day’s work with the Fresque du Climat (which means ‘climate fresco’ in French) to raise awareness about individual impact as well as the wider impact of human activities on the planet as a whole.”
Innovation, transmission and growth are the cornerstones of MANE’s production strategy – with La Sarrée industrial site serving as the benchmark. That leaves only the major challenge of preserving a deep-seated family business culture. “At MANE, we consider ourselves one big family, which is an idea we are committed to maintaining,” concludes Rodi.