Archives - With its new lab Marionnet grows

The nurseryman from Soings-en-Sologne inaugurated his in vitro laboratory. This investment will allow the company to develop its activity and to hire.

The extension of the in vitro culture laboratory was expected at Marionnet, nurseryman of Soings-en-Sologne.

"Due to a lack of space, we could only meet one third of the demand". Says Marc Javouhey, head of the in vitro laboratory. "This opens up enormous opportunities for us," confirms Pascal Marionnet, the manager. We will be able to respond to other tenders, triple our production of date palms, make vanilla ... ".

Before July, the nursery had a single growing room in its plant research and innovation center, compared to three now. Now, plants are grown in more than 40,000 glass jars (see below).

This will strengthen its position as the world's leading supplier of in vitro date palms. "We will be able to produce 800,000 strawberry plants and 400,000 date plants each year," explains Marc Javouhey. "We will also be able to produce mulberry and raspberry plants, which we used to do for other laboratories.

An increase in activity means an increase in staff. Three people have already been hired since July in the laboratory. Others will follow with the hiring of five other people in the short term. "The objective within five years is to increase the number of employees in the laboratory from fifteen to thirty-five," says Pascal Marionnet.

Due to a lack of support from banks, the extension could not be completed until this year. Without private sector support, Pascal Marionnet turned to the community of communes of the Val de Cher-Controis to carry the 579,924 € HT investment (1). "I am happy to play this small role at Marionnet" announced Jean-Luc Brault, president of the community of communes, on Thursday during the inauguration of the building.

Thanks to the elected officials and the conscientious and rigorous work of the administrative and technical services, "it took us only six months to complete this extension".

(1) Currently, Marionnet represents 140 full-time equivalents.
(2) The nurseryman pays rent and has an option to purchase the building.

Article by Alexandre Salle published in the newspaper " La Nouvelle République " of Tuesday, November 21, 2017.