(News Bulletin 247) – This ETI born in 1973 has filed its universal registration document with Euronext, thus marking the first stage of a listing on Euronext Growth. She heads for soil that does not contain peat to ensure her growth.

After Lepermislibre, another new resident should soon join the Paris Stock Exchange. Florentaise, the specialist in the production of potting soil for individuals and companies, announced on Monday the filing of its universal registration document with the stock market operator Euronext, the first stage of its project to list on Euronext Growth, the compartment of the Parisian square reserved for the smallest companies.

Founded in 1973, Florentaise is an ETI which employs 245 people. Its some 600 references in own brands or private labels are sold in major brands, such as Truffaut, Botanic, Lidl, or Intermarché. The company claims that it represents one in five bags of potting soil sold to the general public and that it covers 12% of the professional market.

Its revenues amounted to 57.5 million euros for its last full financial year, ended June 30, 2022, with average annual growth of 20% over the last three financial years, for an operating margin of 5% and a profit of nearly 930,000 euros. It is targeting 13% growth for the 2022-2023 fiscal year, with 65 million in revenue.

Preserve the peat

The company highlights its expertise in low-carbon potting soil, which avoids the use of peat. This plant material is widely used in global production, up to 60% of growing media sold today, according to Florentaise. However, peat takes several thousand years to form in wetlands called peat bogs.

“While they occupy only 3% of the surface of the globe, peatlands have been storing approximately 30% of the carbon stored in the soil for millennia. Even more than forests, they thus constitute real carbon sinks that are very efficient and essential in regulating the planet’s climate,” the company explains.

Consequently, Florentin has developed alternative solutions, based on wood chips and bark, which the company claims have a carbon footprint 20 to 50 times lower than the peat it replaces. Florentin ensures that, at the end of June 2022, 77% of the raw materials used for the production of its potting soils did not contain peat. The rise in power of these alternative solutions “will make it possible to relay the planned shutdown at the end of 2026 of the exploitation by Florentaise of the last peat bog authorized in France”, in the Channel, explains the company.

Heading to China

In the medium term, the company expects to generate revenues of 120 million euros and an operating margin of more than 20% by the end of its financial year ending in June 2027.

To achieve such ambitions, Florentaise will activate several catalysts, such as winning market share in France for both individuals and professionals, which represent respectively 61% and 39% of its revenues in France.

The group is also present in six countries internationally, including England, the Netherlands, the United States, India and especially China. In the latter market, where it has been active since 2016, Florentaise has recorded annual growth of more than 85% per year since 2020. The group has two factories and plans to open three “new production units” in 2023, 2024 and 2025 in regions where he is not present.

Another “catalyst” that the group wants to activate: the deployment in Europe and the United States of substrate production machines, called Bivis, with other potting soil manufacturers, on the principle of rental.

This “model combining long-term contract, royalties and maintenance, has already enabled the marketing of seven machines with leading potting soil manufacturers in England and the Netherlands”, explained Jean-Pascal Churpin, CEO of Florentaise, quoted in a press release.

Revenues from this activity should represent 3.4 million euros at the end of June 2024 and should weigh 20% of the estimated consolidated turnover by 2027, indicates the company.