Back to Bogra for the "Back To Growth" plan

Bogra is the place where Grameen Danone and danone.communities were born: it is in this town of 300,000 inhabitants of Bangladesh that has been installed the first factory, "the Zidane’s factory" as we can here sometimes here. This is also where we started door to door sales of Shokti Doi, in villages. At the beginning of the project, I spent a lot of time here and I am happy to return today at the convention "Back to Growth" of Grameen Danone.

After a year of sales more or less stable but not growing, this meeting marks a new beginning.

Corinne Bazina, the new CEO since one year, has done extraordinary work to strengthen her team and organization. "We have to be better every week" - she said.

In fact, she has recruited almost entirely the team around her today (Rashed in logistics management, Dippesh in HR, Rafiqul in production, Sultan in sales) and I am impressed with their passion and professionalism. I also met Marjana, a young professional from Danone Slovenia that came to help for the launch. I asked her how she arrived here, she said "Oh I heard about danone.communities two years ago and it took me two years to convince my boss to let me go, it's not easy because we have a small team. But I am here finally ". I also learned that four employees have gone to overseas training this year. In short, I see with my eyes the consolidation of teams that will be the true foundation of success and sustainability of Grameen Danone.

We are also celebrating the extraordinary work of women – the 300 shokti ladies of Bogra - who sell in the countryside around Bogra and whose sales have risen by 50% this year. In part this result is the creation of a new distribution system which has the cornerstone on RVS - Rickshaw Van Seller […]. The idea is simple but ambitious as it is to motivate and train rickshaw drivers to become a full sellers, that can collect and negotiate with sellers. The rickshaw drivers selected have learned their new roles beyond expectations and I see in their eyes the pride of those who have acquired a new status with this work. Over time, the team has discovered many advantages of this system, which is simply that there is a closeness between the RVS and sellers - often the same communities - which can resolve many problems ...

We are also celebrating an improvement in our supply chain through the work of Dippesh, who joined the team 9 months ago. Improving the cold chain is a battle every day in a country where refrigerators are missing and where they do not work that part of the day. The cold chain begins at the factory and we celebrate especially the doubling of the storage capacity of the plant, essential to the resumption of growth.

The plan “Back to growth” is impressive :

To start 1600 stores were completely re-decorated.

Above all, Shakib Al Hasan, cricket champion and local kind of Zidane, decided to become an ambassador for the brand. He is in the advertising campaign that began mid-September and has the ambition to reach several times 40 millions Bangladeshi people.

And then comes the launching of "Shokti Pocket", a pouch of 40 grams that costs 5 takas (the original price 4 years ago but that we had lost). The pouch contains a product very similar to Shokti Doi but with milk and cereal mixture, and has a lifespan of 20 days out of the cold chain and ultimately increases the possibility of selling by 10 (From 60,000 stores with a fridge to 600.000 without).

We spend the morning to share these new plans with 200 Grameen Danone employees. The afternoon is devoted to games and a quiz on social business and the mission of Grameen Danone. At the end of the day the team is eager to embark on this new stage in the story of Grameen Danone.

Translation by Google Translate.

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