Known to be “at the heart of the Reunion Islanders’ plate”, Ilôt Surgelé is preparing to launch a unique additional frozen food offering combining organic products, vegan, gluten-free and lactose-free. A first not only in Reunion, but an innovation also in mainland France where there is currently only one store that has adopted this concept. Supported by in-store information, a selection of frozen products labeled organic or vegan will soon be available in corners in Ilôt Surgelé stores and in full in two specific points of sale which will open in Saint-Pierre and Saint-Denis under a new brand under a new brand whose name will be revealed soon. By becoming a pioneer of the food transition, Ilôt Surgelé could not better celebrate the dynamism of its 20 years. Already in 2003, its positioning on Reunionese cuisine had refreshed the local frozen food market. More faithful than ever to its roots, the brand completes, in addition, its territorial coverage with the opening of a twelfth point of sale in Bel-Air (Saint Louis). Finally, it focuses on proximity by strengthening the fleet of “Mobile Surgelé Islands” to reach out to customers in the gaps and Hauts. Christophe Aigueperse, at the helm of the Ilôt Surgelé company for twenty years, explains this rich news to us.
Meeting Leader : The Ilôt Surgelé brand celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2023. How is she doing ?
Christophe Aigueperse : We resisted the crises of 2020 and 2021. The year 2022 was a year of rebound, and the year 2023 looks pretty good, since we are resuming our store openings which had been on pause for two years. Our network will soon include 12 stores with the opening of our latest point of sale in the Bel Air district of Saint-Louis.. In terms of employment, our workforce numbers 30 employees at Ilôt Surgelé. Two thirds are in stores, the last third is distributed between functional support (store group managers) and administration. Added to this are around twenty jobs at Sopema OI which plays the role of purchasing and distribution center for Ilôt Surgelé and for the CHR sector..
By forcing you to move as little as possible, hasn’t the health crisis favored frozen food? ?
This is a false idea. We have not experienced growth due to the health crisis. Especially since we were constrained by the reception gauges in our stores. There was a real influx in the first month, because this crisis was unknown to everyone and everyone wanted to stock up. But the balloon quickly deflated, and we returned to a normal rhythm. With or without health crisis, the level of the frozen food market remained the same in Reunion.
What convinced you, twenty years ago, to embark on the Ilôt Surgelé project ?
I came to Reunion Island to open the Ilôt Surgelé store network. My father-in-law, Norbert Baesa, is the founder of Sopema, the Mascarene fishing company. It was he who initiated the cutting factory, preparation and packaging of frozen products intended for catering professionals and families. The factory outlet worked very well, but it only offered a single site, while there was a real demand all over the island for frozen factory products which would be distributed in stores. Frozen allows you to save money compared to fresh. These are products without excess packaging, which correspond to the Reunionese family consumption pattern : we like to run errands for a while. We therefore decided with Norbert, the founder of Sopema, to initially open a first local store in Le Port, the town closest to the factory. Faced with its success, we quickly opened a second in Saint-Paul and a third in Le Tampon, the same year. To be able to go further, we have adapted the capacity of our processing workshop in order to be able to supply the stores in terms of production. From there, we were able to control our growth and continued our development at the rate of one store opening per year for around ten years. We are completing our network of Ilôt Surgelé stores this year with the opening in a few weeks of a twelfth point of sale in Bel Air.
UMBRELLA : A VOLUNTARY EMPHASIS
“The brand has been under the radar of the French Academy for twenty years…”, declares with amusement Christophe Aigueperse about the circumflex accent placed above the O instead of the I in the name of the brand Ilôt Surgelé. To the truth, the helping habit, no one pays attention, but this O has a little story. « Norbert Baesa, founding father, originally thought of naming the company “The Island of Frozen”. It was the sign designer of the time who made a mistake when he wrote “Ilôt Surgelé”, and it stayed that way. I also have on the wall of my office a very pretty O. In short, a shell that has become a private joke for those in the know…”
There were other frozen food brands at the time when Ilôt Surgelé launched. They disappeared. What was your recipe for success? ?
In the 2000s, there was a real craze for frozen foods, which offered an economical and practical solution for family food purchases. There were in fact several brands in the Reunionese plate niche. : Gel Center had six stores, Frigotimes had two factory stores in Rivière des Galets and Saint-Louis, etc. We were the last to arrive in this niche and, Effectively, we are the last ones present. What made us successful ? First, it’s our team and the team spirit that unites us. We are local businesses. The connection with customers is fundamental ; twenty years since I've been here, I know my clients personally, I saw their children grow up who in turn became customers of ours ! Being in the heart of the Reunion Islanders’ plate, as we do, what does this mean ? This means meeting their needs. We listen very closely to our customers. This is why our offer is ultimately quite short, devoid of superfluous, flourish. It goes to the essential to allow the customer to make a real choice. Too many products make the choice difficult, on the contrary. In this way we meet the needs for traditional products, to which the Reunionese are attached, while giving us the means to introduce something new, because the Reunionese are also fond of discoveries. We managed to find this balance.
This “niche of the Reunionese plate”, as you call it, was it yours from the start ?
Yes, from the beginning. We did not vary on this line. Norbert Baesa founded Sopema in the 1990s. He bought whole fish after returning from fishing, froze them and sold them. He was one of the first to offer fish in cubes and slices in Reunion Island., thirty years ago, before products from Asia establish themselves in this market segment by being cheaper. Sopema then diversified its offering by launching Ilôt Surgelé, but without ever deviating from its fundamentals : the products and ingredients of Reunionese cuisine. Curries and rougails remain our mainstay. They are also very popular with tourists. This culinary tradition must continue and prosper, and we bring our stone to this building. The soul of Ilôt Surgelé is deeply Reunionese. That's what we said, eight years ago, with the slogan : “The 100% Reunionese brand ! » Frozen Island, it’s Reunion on the plate and in the heart.
Do we know what the local frozen food market represents today in volume and value? ?
I cannot give you any figures on the overall frozen food market in Reunion Island.. What is certain nonetheless, that's what he is, proportionally, much more important than in mainland France. Just look at the space devoted to frozen foods in supermarkets in France and Reunion Island.. It represents here a good fifth of the sales areas in supermarkets : it’s easily double what you find in France ! In a city, in a large area, you will find on average two sections of frozen products, including ice cream. Here, you find four or five. In the meeting, the supply of frozen foods is greater than the supply of fresh foods in mass distribution. What can also be said about this market, is that the range of frozen products has evolved a lot. Today, the entire food offering is available in frozen form : appetizers for an aperitif, through to desserts and starters, the main dishes, the accompaniments, etc. Logically, the more the offer has expanded, the more the weight of frozen food on the food market has increased. Frozen food is present in all segments, all food worlds. In addition, it is the response to the most current requirements : refusing food waste, the need to optimize food spending, the desire to reduce packaging. In 2023, frozen food fits all that. It is seen as a different way of consuming.
Your main competitors are the large retail brands. ?
Yes, of course. Although with Sopema we also provide GMS, it competes with us commercially. I would even say that we are often a source of inspiration for large stores. We play a bit of a testing center role, discovery workshop, for mass distribution. This is also understandable. If we are wrong about a product, we do it on a smaller scale than a supermarket brand. It is therefore normal for supermarkets to look at what is happening in our stores before launching into marketing a product..
In twenty years, although the culinary fundamentals continue, Reunion has changed. Are consumers buying the same products as yesterday? ?
Yes and no. The evolution of frozen food concerns the products themselves. Take a product like poultry. Twenty years ago, we sold the whole chicken. After, we sold it cut up. Ensuite, we sold the drumsticks separately, the wings, the nets. Then the chicken had to be smoked. Ensuite, that it is breaded, then spicy. Result : we passed, in twenty years, from whole frozen chicken to a 400 gram bag of breaded and spiced chicken drumsticks ! Frozen food has taken up more and more space for this reason.
You manage to offer prices accessible to as many people as possible. How are you doing in terms of supply? ?
The fishery resources that Sopema transforms come from all waters. We work with Norwegian cod, Namibian snook, fish from Indonesia, etc. We also work with Reunionese shipowners, the grenadier and the toothfish.. On meat products, we are anchored in France and, Otherwise, and Europe : we offer French poultry and French pork as much as possible.
Locally, you have suppliers ?
We work with Reunion suppliers of fishing products, in snacking and ice cream. These are, locally, the only sectors currently able to produce frozen foods. In ice cream and sorbet, we work with two ice cream parlors that offer Reunion flavors. For snacking products, such as caps, we offer local frozen food brands. For the rest, producers do not have enough production capacity. Local meat producers or even fruit and vegetables already have some difficulty meeting the demand for fresh produce.. So they only have a few frozen food offerings. However, there are frozen fruit and vegetable projects that we are following closely..
Do you plan to mark the brand’s 20th anniversary in a special way? ?
We will celebrate this anniversary throughout the year, by staggering the events. These will be monthly meetings, with promotions, games, competitions, etc. The symbol of these 20 years is important to us. Being 20 years old means that we have succeeded in weaving a story with Reunion. We also see it as a threshold, one step, for our next projects.
In addition to the twelfth Ilôt Surgelé point of sale in Bel Air, do you have other development projects ?
This twelfth store will open at the start of the second quarter. Our other big news concerns the launch of a range of organic frozen products, vegan, gluten free or lactose free. With, again very quickly, the establishment of corners in Ilôt Surgelé stores and the opening of two specific points of sale. These two stores will market the predominantly organic and vegan range under a new brand.. They will be located in the two main urban centers of the island, namely Saint-Pierre and Saint-Denis. The first opening should be in Saint-Pierre within two to three months. We are therefore implementing a dual strategy on this project. On the one hand by distributing part of this new range in the current network of our frozen food stores with the creation of corners clearly identifying this universe. On the other hand by opening points of sale which will offer the entire offer.
This new range makes you change your positioning…
It enriches our offering and expands our customer base. We already have customers who are gluten intolerant or vegan.. We are going to offer them a more extensive offer which better corresponds to the scope of their expectations by covering more products.. Beyond, the goal is obviously to attract the organic and vegan customers who are growing in Reunion to the frozen solution.. These customers who are sensitive to the nutritional quality and the responsible and sustainable nature of the products should know that there is now a brand specializing in organic frozen foods., vegan, gluten-free and lactose-free. The advantages of frozen food that I mentioned previously, I add that frozen food meets the expectation of less processed products. Our offer is selected and constructed mainly from organic products which have recognized labels for responsible and sustainable consumption.. In addition to organic and vegan guarantees, we have strived to ensure that the vast majority of our products have a correct Nutri-Score. We have been very attentive to all these points in the selection of products. We have taken into account the information on the composition of the products provided by Yuka, reference in the field of health rating in food. Two thirds of our products are “Yuka compatible” with a good rating.
What exactly will we find in this new range? ?
We start with around a hundred products belonging to the best-selling frozen food sectors.. Fruits, vegetables, potatoes, Pisces, ice cream and sorbet, and a limited supply of meat and poultry. There are some cooked dishes and pizzas. The organic and vegan nature of the products is a commitment that we make to our customers. A commitment based on clear and precise information on each product. Store teams will be trained for this. These products all meet specifications. It's a slightly different approach, asking for more education to inform customers about the organic and vegan guarantees of products as well as the Nutri-Score nutritional labels and labeling. This store concept is new in frozen food. Not only in Reunion. You should know that there is only one store of this type in mainland France., located in Aix-en-Provence, opened a year ago.
Why create a new brand ?
We are on something different in the offer and in the way of selling. It seemed necessary to me to find a name corresponding to this other way of considering frozen food in relation to the food transition., organic products, vegan products, information on labels. In these stores, we will be closer to a form of support for consumers. We will have to provide proof of what we are selling.
The layout will be of the same type as the Ilôt Surgelé points of sale ?
Globally, oui. There are not many arrangements possible with frozen food bins. But we are considering the possibility of integrating a dry space, which would be another novelty in a frozen food store.
Should we see in this project a commercial diversification or a new commitment from the company? ?
It is clearly a commitment. We have been committed for twenty years alongside the people of Reunion Island to offer them quality products.. We are renewing this commitment by taking a step forward with these products geared towards the food transition, but always with the aim of meeting needs and arousing desires. It’s about creating new pleasures without giving up old ones..
With Sopema and Ilôt Surgelé, you are present in the catering and mass consumption markets. What about collective catering?, school catering in particular ?
Collective catering is part of our organic range and quality product project. . Frozen food is an obvious way to meet the requirements of the law 
Egalim and the Ambition Bio plan of the Minister of Agriculture and Food. As a reminder, the Egalim law of 2018 provides for thresholds to be reached within a year for quality, sustainable products and organic products in meals served in collective catering. These thresholds have been revised downwards in the overseas departments, but we are still very far from the goal. We are already responding to public contracts for collective catering. Demand for frozen organic products is growing as the law comes into effect. We are getting ready to respond to this demand..
Are you planning to open other Ilôt Surgelé stores? ?
Non. At fixed points of sale, I think we are complete. What we are looking for now, it’s about selling frozen foods differently by developing local itinerant sales. We want to get closer to customers who do not have the ability to travel to our stores. Like the elderly and the clientele of isolated gaps and distant Hauts. We have two vehicles, one in the North, one in the South, which operate to serve this clientele. We will quickly move on to three, then four vehicles. These are our “mobile Frozen Islands”.
CHRISTOPHE AIGUEPERSE, A WARM MANAGER
The team spirit reigning within Ilôt Surgelé is found in all points of sale. 
A professional spirit made of simplicity and frankness which is not for nothing in the success of the company : appreciated by customers, it contributes to the link established between Reunion Island and the famous local frozen food brand. Artisan of this direct and “natural” management, Christophe Aigueperse has an original professional background in the trades of commerce. He was first director of cinemas for the Pathé group in several large cities in the south of France.. He then participated in the launch, by the Auchan group, home delivery of groceries, whose brand was a pioneer through its subsidiary Auchan Direct. It was at the request of his father-in-law, Norbert Baesa, that Christophe Aigueperse came to Reunion Island to take charge of the destiny of the Ilôt Surgelé brand. Innovative himself, Norbert Baesa founded Sopema, the Mascarene Fishing Society, in 1990. Christophe Aigueperse now chairs the different entities of the Kryos Group which includes three branches (Commerce, Technology and Real Estate). Sopema OI and Ilôt Surgelé are part of the Commerce branch.
