history of soy yogurt, soy acidophilus milk and other ... - SoyInfo Center

pricing, margins, and promotional discounts. Figures for
Kikkoman Kinugoshi, and two textures of Morinaga were
compiled on 1 Feb. 1989. X. The consumer: Size of user
base unknown. Roper poll reveals a dislike of tofu. Those
most likely to use. Address: New York. Phone: 212-645-
4500.
813. Storup, Bernard. 1989. Re: History of Société Soy–
France’s largest tofu manufacturer. Letter to William
Shurtleff at Soyfoods Center, March 3. 3 p. See p. 1-3. [Eng]
• Summary: Soy (also called Société Soy or Soy S.A.R.L.)
was founded in Feb. 1982 by Bernard Storup and Jean de
Preneuf. (Note that “Société” means simply “company” and
S.A.R.L. means “Société a Responsabilite Limitée,” like
GmbH in German). S.A.R.L. is the legal type of company,
and it is compulsory to have this term on all offi cial papers
in France. Bernard came from a family of dairy product
manufacturers. In the minds of customers and other
companies this company’s name is “Soy,” a term which in
French has no particular connection with soybeans.
Bernard and his wife Françoise came to America in
Nov. 1980 to study tofu and soymilk around the country;
they stayed until July 1981, attending the Soycrafters’
Conference at Colorado State University. Jean de Preneuf did
the same thing from Sept. 1980 to July 1981. Most U.S. tofu
companies were still small and inexperienced at the time,
but those which Bernard and Jean found most interesting
were Island Spring, Nasoya, New England Soy Dairy,
White Wave, and Swan Gardens (Miami, Florida). Jean and
Françoise also visited with William and Akiko Shurtleff in
California.
Upon returning to France, Bernard and Jean set up
a soy dairy (600 square meters) in Cerny, a small village
located (35 km or 22 miles) due south of Paris, near places
named La-Ferté-Alais and Torfu. They started to make tofu
commercially in June 1982. By 1983-84 they were making
2,500 kg/week (5,500 lb/week) of tofu.
In December 1986 the company stopped production
at Cerny and moved to a larger (1,400 square meters) and
more rationally designed plant located 500 km (310 miles)
south of Paris in the foothills (elevation 600 meters) in
St.-Chamond, near St.-Etienne, a little southwest of Lyon.
Situated on the border of the Pilat Natural Regional Park
(Parc Naturel Regional du Pilat, 65,000 ha or 161,000 acres)
they had a nice view of the mountains. They moved to this
location for two main reasons: (1) Because it has some of the
best French water (of the same phreatic groundwater origin
as most French mineral water such as Badoit, Evian, Vittel,
etc.); (2) Because of the geographic location, being at the
center of France, only 2 hours by road from Switzerland and
Italy, 4 hours from Germany, less than 4 hours from Paris,
and 5 hours from Spain. Production at Saint-Chamond began
in Jan. 1987.
“Throughout the years we have developed our own
HISTORY OF SOY YOGURT & CULTURED SOYMILK 295
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technology and equipment, and have now a rather good
quality soymilk and tofu. At present, we carry different
families of products on 3 different markets.
“(1) The health-food market. Up to now it has been
our main market, and we are now distributing to nearly all
health-food stores equipped with a cooler (about 1,500 out
of a total of 2,500 in France). The distribution itself is all
done through specialized distributors in this fi eld in France
(about 20). We are the leader in this market (being practically
alone), but this fi eld is nearly saturated for our products.
We should see a maximum increase of 20–30% in the next
3 years, as these traditional health-food stores are getting
more and more competition from supermarkets. We are
presently in the same type of market in Switzerland through
a distributor, and directly in Germany and Belgium.
“(2) The food industry. They are looking for a ‘soy-base’
to lower fats in cooked pork meats (sausages, pâtés, etc.), or
to use in prepared cooked foods (‘plats cuisinés’, or to fi ll
pastas, etc.). We sell them bulk vacuum-packed tofu pieces
of 3–4 kg each. In terms of volume, this market should be
the more important in the future, but not in terms of sales,
as prices are of course rather low. We began (January 1989)
to sell soymilk in bulk (by 25,000 liters tank) to distributors
interested in having their own brand-names, and dealing
with supermarkets or the health-food market. This soymilk
is packaged in Tetra-Brick cartons by another company.
Up to now we haven’t carried our own brand. There will
be such competition (in price) with soymilk in Europe in
the forthcoming months that it may be better to stay as a
simple supplier. Anyway our position can change rapidly.
We should produce about 2 million liters of soymilk this
year, having contracts already for more than 1 million, on a
market estimated at 7 to 10 million liters in France in 1988.
The soymilk market is estimated to increase at 20 to 30%
a year for the coming years, and most supermarkets are
now considering having their own brands. Prices to fi nal
consumers have been rather high up to now (9 to 12 French
francs [FF] per liter), and should drop clearly in the future.
The leader in Europe, Vandemoortele (with Provamel,
etc., brands), lowered his prices twice last year in France.
Anyway, these fi gures are and will remain extremely weak
compared to the traditional milk market (plus the dairy
lobby takes a strong position against these substitutes in the
E.C.C.).
“(3) The super and hypermarkets. These represent
actually 54-55% of total food sales in France (1.5% for
health-food stores, 5% for co-ops and direct from factory
sales, the rest for traditional grocery stores). We will
introduce 4 complete lines of products with complete new
packaging in April 1989, on a new brand, ‘Jean de Preneuf’
(remember ‘pre’ means fi eld, and ‘neuf’ new), ‘SOY’ being
our brand-name for health-food markets. We do actually 2 or
3% of our total sales in this market, and hope to be at 35% at
the end of 1989.