Robust economic performance, serving a unique model
In the first year of deployment of its strategic plan - Ambition2030 - and with an unprecedented investment policy, Avril has reinforced in 2024 its commitments to decarbonation, the development of plant proteins, and support for agricultural and food sovereignty.
Avril in 2024 : key figures
Text transcript
Commitments and results.
5th-largest food company in France, with 7,245 employees operating in 19 countries with 69 industrial sites worldwide, of which 51 in France and 18 abroad.
A fair distribution for value. Sales of €8 billion by 2023, 42% of which will be international. 77% of sales returned upstream to suppliers. 12 M€ allocated to the aid plan for breeders over the last two years. 29/ton average sustainable seed bonus in 2023 for OleoZE partner farmers. Ambitious commitments in line with Servir La Terre's raison d'être. 97 M€ of investments in territories with Sofiprotéol to structure agricultural and food sectors. + More than 500 farmers partners in the Lesieur Huiles Engagées approach and 20M liters of rapeseed and sunflower flower oils to be produced by 2024. 100% of palm oil used since 2020 covered by sustainability measures. Since 2019, the Spring index has measured progress in the CSR approach, calculated on an average of 25 indicators.
For this last year, the progress target has been reached: 5.1/5
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€7.7B
revenue in 2024
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€25M
net income in 2024
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€2.18B
shareholders' equity in 2024
In 2021, Avril announced its new ambition: to become the leader in plant processing solutions, serving the transitions in food, agriculture, and the environment, and its corporate purpose, “Serving the Earth”.
To meet this objective, Avril has unveiled its new strategic plan AMBITION 2030 and its 5 axis :
- Developing low-carbon, sustainable solutions
- Provide our clients with high value-added offers
- Develop plant proteins in all our businesses
- Strengthen the diversified profile of our businesses and geographies
- Enhance our competitiveness
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€500M
investments in 2023
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€98M
in the agricultural and food sectors via Sofiprotéol in 2024
For more details, see Avril’s Integrated Annual Report.
An international presence
Avril is present in 18 countries, with 82 industrial sites, and numerous business units throughout the world. International business is a major growth driver for the Group, representing 43% of its revenue.
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€4,3B
of the 2024 revenue was generated in France
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€3.3B
revenue from international operations in 2023
The 120,000 French oilseed producers and 26,000 livestock farmer partners exemplify the Group’s strong local roots in France and abroad, representing 45,000 direct and indirect jobs.
A close-knit group with a commitment to social responsibility
The Group numbers nearly 8,404 employees, including 4,845 in France.
This collaborative group, 33.30% of whom are women, acts on a daily basis: “Serving the Earth”. This purpose, fulfilled by the men and women of the Group, is founded on six strong commitments contributing to the transitions in food, agriculture, and the environment.
Learn more about our purpose and the six commitments behind it.
Avril adopted a code of ethics and conduct that all the Group’s employees are committed to respecting in their daily activities and in their relations with others. Honesty, sincerity, and consistency in interpersonal relationships contribute to a positive work environment at all levels of the company. The same applies to relations with both clients and suppliers.
With this same reasoning in mind, Avril chooses to work solely with suppliers committed to the same standards and principles in terms of sustainable development and social ethics.
Learn more about the Supplier Code of Conduct.
Avril is also committed to animal welfare, by being both attentive to consumers’ expectations and working alongside livestock farmers to meet their expectations. Its scope of responsibility covers its own operations and approximately 2,800 livestock farms that do business with the Group.
Learn more about Avril’s animal welfare policy.
Transparent monitoring of CSR performance
2023 marked the end of the first cycle of the SPRING tool, which evaluates progress in CSR. This initial cycle, from 2019 to 2023, concluded with a score of 5.1 out of 5, exceeding expectations. In 2024, a new cycle begins to extend and strengthen this momentum with a target score of 4 points in 2024 and 10 points by 2030. Each year, SPRING evaluates 14 key indicators aligned with the Group’s purpose commitments and overseen by Executive Committee sponsors. With a score of 4.7 out of 4 in 2024, the progress is notable; however, further efforts are necessary, particularly in addressing climate challenges.
Some key figures :
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98.2%
Recovery rate for industrial waste
(Saipol + Lesieur) -
277
KWh Per ton produced
(Group's main production sites)
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1065
Cubic meters of water per ton of production
(Group's main production sites)
Performance monitoring is carried out on both the environmental and social levels. Thanks to these efforts, the number of internal transfers has risen from 140 in 2021 to 179 in 2022, 296 in 2023 and 453 in 2024.
Each employee received an average of 2.6* days of training. In 2024, the turnover rate is 4% (France and international).
An effective decarbonization strategy
In 2020, the Group’s decarbonization strategy took shape with the first comprehensive assessment of greenhouse gas emissions associated with its activities.
Based on this assessment, Avril’s energy management agreed on a new roadmap in 2021 to accelerate the Group’s energy transition. The objective is to reduce all direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions 30% by 2030 (vs. reference year 2019).
This ambitious strategy was approved in July 2023 by the Science Based Targets initiative, an international organization that enables companies to set clear emissions reduction goals.
Avril is innovating to improve the carbon footprint of its companies
Saipol, the French leader in oilseed processing and a business unit of the Group, provides an immediate and pragmatic response to the energy transition challenge facing road transport and local authorities. After more than 6 years in operation, nearly 2,000 connected tanks have now been deployed across France to power around 16,000 heavy-duty vehicles (trucks, coaches, buses, and garbage trucks) with Oleo100. In 2023 alone, the use of Oleo100 — a 100% French rapeseed-based biofuel — helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector by more than 350,000 tonnes of CO₂eq* (*compared to the use of fossil diesel).
CDP Climate Change 2020: an assessment of the Group's carbon footprint
The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is an organization dedicated to aggregating and evaluating the environmental reporting of companies. This entity is the reference today regarding the matter of climate change. It assigns a “Level Engagement Score” to respondents on a scale of A to D, with A being the highest.
We moved up two steps in our CDP assessment and achieved a B score. More than 13,000 companies worldwide have responded to CDP questionnaires to measure the risks and opportunities (including financial) related to climate change. On the EcoVadis platform, in less than two years, the Group’s overall assessment has gone from Bronze to Silver and some of our entities are already Platinum or Gold.
For further information, please consult Avril’s Extra-Financial Performance Statement.