Wessanen now called Ecotone

The parent company of Clipper and Tartex wants to underline its eco-mission with a new name. The headquarters of the organic company is also different.

255 years after its foundation, the Wessanen Group has given itself a new name almost unnoticed by the public. Since November 10, the company, founded in 1765, has officially been called Ecotone. The new name is intended to underscore the multinational group's mission to produce organic food and thus promote biodiversity, CEO Christophe Barnouin announced in a press release.

Those who wish to visit the Wessanen website are redirected to Ecotone.bio. There, the food company also announces that in November it moved its headquarters from Amsterdam in the Netherlands to Lyon in France.

Last year, the French investment company PAI, together with Wessanen's main shareholder Charles Jobson, took over the company and delisted it from the stock exchange. Instead of profit-oriented shareholders, sustainability issues are to play an even greater role in corporate management at Ecotone in the future. Since 2019, Ecotone has been able to adorn itself with the "B Corp" certificate. So-called "B Corporations" are companies that commit to social added value and ecological sustainability in their articles of association.

Ecotone prefers to invest in organic producers. In October, it was announced that the company, through its subsidiary Allos, was acquiring Little Lunch, a German organic soup producer from Germany, with the aim of entering the European market. In the middle of the year, Ecotone Group bought Danival, a French organic food producer, to expand its presence in French organic stores and strengthen its position in the veggie meal category with its own production facilities and local sourcing.

According to its own information, Ecotone turned over 625 million euros last year and employs 1500 people. By 2030, the company, which operates throughout Europe, aims to achieve 90 percent of its sales with organic food.