COTTES

Founded in 1982 in Ariège in the French Pyrenees, Cottes quickly made the move into frozen bread, first raw and then precooked. The family business, which opened up to outside investors for the first time in 1994, renewed its industrial bakery product range by launching "Pérènes" – high-quality, "traditionally made" frozen precooked leavened breads, cooked in a deck oven – which progressively expanded into a whole range of loaves, buns and baguettes. This ability to innovate, together with an ambitious industrial investment program (creation of a second plant, then a doubling of production lines) enabled Cottes to maintain double-digit growth over a long period, notably by developing its sales to supermarkets. Initiative & Finance bought the stake of the previous financial investor (while ensuring personal continuity in shareholder relations) alongside founder Roland Cottes in 2003. This support made it possible to complete an investment cycle and to become part of the Belgian group Vandemorteele, which made the firm the bridgehead of its diversification into industrial bakery products.