Mikaël Aubertin, EDHEC 2002, who co-founded an organic food brand for babies with Alexandra Butruille in 2010, is now launching a product range for children. EDHEC Alumni invites you to read the interview given at the Club Entrepreneurs Challenges-Grant Thornton.
Source : challenges.fr

You aren’t among those who launched their company just after graduating. Why not?

Mikaël Aubertin. My classmates at EDHEC swore by major firms only! I first worked at Société Générale and then at Unilever and McKinsey. In 2008, my wife and I had our first daughter, which made me take a step back and look at the path I was following. Also, like a lot of parents, we didn’t have enough time. We faced a dilemma: open a jar of something with a disappointing taste or take the time to prepare something ourselves.

What solution does Good Goût provide?

It’s a food brand for babies with a focus on good-quality, organic and appealing ingredients, with attractive packaging that helped us stand out on supermarket shelves. Our model was the Michel et Augustin brand. We invest in R&D for our recipes and packaging. We also work with seven industrial partners in France and neighbouring countries. Finally, we manage our own marketing and sales.

How did you break into the supermarket sector?

I travelled 25,000 km around France visiting 750 organic stores. Eventually the message clicked. Gradually national stores started to stock our products. We now have a presence in almost all retailers, on specialist organic networks and in the pure players of the organic market. We work with around 20 different countries. Our revenue reached €13 million in 2017 and we are targeting between 18 and 20 million this year. We have been running a profit since our second year, and we are proud to be the company with the fastest growth in the French agri-food sector!

How do you intend to reach sales of 20 million?

We are developing our network of retailers, and this year we will be adding 25 products to the 60 already available, with the major launch of a product range for 3-10 year olds. Just 8% of households have babies aged 0 to 3. Our clients are loyal but only over the short term. But we realised bigger kids were eating our products, so we decided to launch Good Goût Kids, which includes fruit pouches, biscuits and cereal bars. The ambition for 10 years from now is to have a complete product range.