Aviagen completes French tie-up

Aviagen France, the newly formed business unit of Aviagen, is now the primary supplier of Ross stock to the French market.

This follows the conclusion of the agreement to purchase the Grandparent (GP) production facilities of Aviagen’s French distributor Grelier France Accouveur, announced in January 2011.

Customers across France will be supplied directly from Aviagen France, whose office is located in Beaucouzé, near Angers. The company now owns a hatchery and 14 GP farms and all employees that were involved in Grelier’s GP operations have transferred to Aviagen France.

“Aviagen France is a welcome addition to our European production network,” said Aviagen’s president, European Operations, Brian Whittle. “Our mini product, the Ross PM3, has a proven track record of success in the market through the good work done by Grelier over many years. They have provided us with an excellent platform from which to further develop the relationships with our French customer base.”

The new company will be led by Thierry Rolland, who will take up the position of business unit manager in mid-May. Mr Rolland has been involved in the poultry industry for almost 25 years, the vast majority of this time within the broiler industry, working with birds of all generations. The co-ordination and provision of technical service will also be locally supplied and will be the responsibility of Gérard Munsch, who has been involved in the French poultry industry for over 20 years, mainly working for primary breeding companies.

Alain Noel, director general of Groupe Grelier, said his company would continue as a parent stock customer for Aviagen.