Over the years, Limagrain has conquered very strong market positions and has become the dominant leader in the European seed industry. The group has established dominant positions on the European market in maize and wheat. The leadership in maize has been achieved several years ago, it has had its ups and downs, but it is solidly established. As for wheat, Limagrain didn't start investing in wheat until about 12 years when it acquired Nickerson's operations, but progress has been very fast and the group is now competing head to head with the other European leaders. This enables Limagrain to be present in the two major European cereal seed markets.

As for our vegetable seed activity, its development started in the mid seventies. Over the last 25 years, it has become a worldwide group of companies through a series of acquisitions. The most recent step, which for us took a special significance, was the acquisition of 40% of the Japanese company Kyowa Seed. This was the last step toward a true global presence. Naturally, the European market still represents the largest portion of this activity, followed by the North American market and now this new presence in Asia.

Limagrain is now one of the global leaders in vegetable seed. This allows our group to maintain a certain balance between its main sectors of activity while at the same time reaching a critical size in each of them, which in turn enables us to exert a real influence as a major player in the industry. This is key for us because nowadays, as I mentioned earlier, you must reach a critical size in your sectors of activity, at the European level if not globally. Otherwise, you may survive by concentrating on certain niche markets, but ultimately you are bound to be either acquired or forced out of the market by superior competition.

So much for the group as a whole. Looking now specifically at the vegetable seed sector, we are engaged in two very different activities, one focused on professional users such as growers and food processors, the other one devoted to amateur gardeners, to whom we sell our seed as well as flower bulbs, crop protection products, etc. Each of these two activities represent about the same sales volume for the group, and they reflect a historical presence of many of our companies in both sectors. Today, however, each of our companies is completely focused on one or the other sector. On the other hand, these two sectors fairly complement each other and do not react in the same way to market fluctuations. Historically, we have found that to be an element of stability, as a good year in one sector will make up for a bad year in the other, and this has enabled us to ride out the doldrums of the last few years. This means that, over the last 25 years, we have achieved a steady growth, both in revenues and in profitability, so that today this organization is solidly established as one of the global leaders and looks forward to continued growth in order to maintain its position.