The Bel Group is a major player in the food industry through portions of dairy, fruit and plant-based products, and one of the world leaders in branded cheeses. Its portfolio of differentiated and internationally recognized brands includes The Laughing Cow®, Kiri®, Babybel®, Boursin®, Nurishh®, Pom’Potes®, and GoGo squeeZ®, as well as some 30 local brands. Together, these brands helped the Group generate sales of €3.6 billion in 2022. Some 10,800 employees in some 60 subsidiaries around the world contribute to the deployment of the Group's mission to champion healthier and responsible food for all. Bel products are prepared at 29 production sites and distributed in more than 120 countries.
Publication
18 May 2023 ·
International
Interview with Benoît Rousseau, Group Treasurer & Insurance Director, Bel
4 min read
Marc-Etienne Sébire (CMS): How has Bel decided to integrate KPIs into its financings?
Benoît Rousseau (Bel): Bel was rather a pioneer when we included extra-financial KPIs in our revolving credit facility in 2017. Bel’s Chairman wanted to put CSR at the heart of the strategy of all Bel teams, including the finance department. Inspired by what very few issuers had done on the bond and facility markets, we suggested to our banks to include KPIs in our €520 million multi-currency revolving credit facility, to demonstrate our proactive policy. At the time three KPIs were selected: the reduction of our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the development of nutritional education programs in the Group's key countries and the deployment of a concrete action program in favour of a sustainable upstream dairy industry.
M.-E. S.: You raised new sustainability-linked financings in 2022. Have you felt that the market practice had evolved since your first transaction?
B.R.: Between our initial transaction in 2017 and 2022, the market had completely changed. It was much more mature. While we were looking to issue bonds in 2022, we wanted to maintain a high level of commitment. In our 2022 framework, the KPIs were very much inspired by those of 2017, but with three main differences: they are more ambitious, our GHG emission targets now include Scope 3, which is the bulk of our emissions, and we have validated a 1.5-degree trajectory to 2050 (whereas we were before on a 2-degrees trajectory). We also sought a second party opinion, for an external party to not only verify our figures but to also express an independent opinion on the ambitiousness of our targets. We did not immediately go to the bond market, but we quickly capitalized on our framework by using it for our RCF and in a new Schuldschein. I do believe that the sustainability-linked aspect of our Schuldschein facilitated its negotiation.
M.-E. S.: Are KPIs and targets easy to define?
B.R.: The difficulty with the exercise is that you can't decide overnight "I need to do a green or a sustainability-linked financing, so let’s launch a CSR department". Defining the CSR strategy and gathering the data history should come first. Only when you have the data can you define your KPIs and targets. It’s even more important as I think that committing to annual KPIs, especially on greenhouse gas emissions, can be difficult. To achieve the targets, many projects must be carried out, such as installing biomass boilers and implementing PPA contracts. And all it takes is one small drop in the bucket to make projects shift a year, particularly with the insight of years when we experienced COVID and supply chain issues. One must define its targets carefully.
M.-E. S.: Should all treasurers turn to sustainability-linked financings?
B.R.: You shouldn't underestimate the time spent on it. Even if you are already clear about your KPIs and your data and have teams that are mobilized, producing the framework is still a lot of work. But it's a great experience and I think that today, a treasurer who is not interested in CSR misses a big part of his job. Also, the exercise is extremely positive internally, to educate and spread the word. But you should not do CSR just to do CSR: you should do it because it's part of your global strategy. And to give you an example of how it became key at Bel, CSR is now attached to the finance department, because in the end, it's all about producing good and reliable data.
Read more interviews:
- Interview with Benoît Rousseau;
- Interview with Laurie Chesné, Natixis;
- Interview with Adam Parker and Catarina Martins
