The Min de Toulouse inaugurates its food nursery
He is presented as the “new essential place for food in Toulouse”. The market of national interest in Toulouse reached, on Wednesday February 16, the food nursery, an 850 m2 space entirely dedicated to companies in the food sector and related services. The new food village brought together in the heart of Min a multitude of structures, professions and various skills, which work “in collective intelligence to progress together”.
This coworking space, in open space or closed, was thought out almost a year late. Renovation work had ceased almost two years ago, before being disrupted by the health crisis. The office space has been installed in building 3 of the Min, a place abandoned for twenty years and which once served as a storage space for Cachous Lajaunie, a so-called Toulouse delicacy.
“We worked on the development of this incubator in a complicated context. It was a real challenge to create a coworking area during this period. Here, we have a logic of cross-patronage. We create wealth, “energy, the power of collective efficiency by being together on this set. Everyone works with everyone and that’s how we increase our turnover and synergies,” says Maguelone Pontier, director of the Grand Marché de Toulouse.
A place wherethe entire offer is grouped together”
The space is organized into seven areas around food: products, services, new technologies/IT, employment, communication, confidentiality and well-being and sport. It has a capacity of about sixty workstations. At present, 45 companies are already established there and others are expected to move there in the weeks and months to come. The few vacant places should therefore be filled by the end of the year. To settle there, the companies filled out a file which was evaluated by the allocation committee.
Among the players on the Min plateau are companies that offer a range of food products such as hoop and its gourmet products spirulina for example, but also non-food products, such as Kraft & You and its accessories made from vegetable leather. Support structures for the development of a company such as a bank, an accountant or a lawyer are also present on site. More unusual, a nurse, a podiatrist and a hypnotherapist have also decided to set up their business there. The Community of nuggets, which brings together some forty Toulouse companies, internal and external to the Grand Marché, is also part of this new ecosystem.
“Here, at the Min, you have your bank, insurance, accountant, people to help you with your calls for projects, communication, etc. It was therefore logical to dedicate a place where the entire offer is grouped together “, added Anaelle Mariepresident of the Community of nuggets.
A startup incubator
Incubation is the great novelty of the food nursery. Four young shoots, MiOUM, V21 Be Cannavore, Eautours and Les Jardins Urbains are currently developing their project within the plateau. Since January 2022, and for a period of one year, these startups will benefit from the multiple skills that surround them. They have around them all the services, actors and support necessary for the success of their project.
“The incubated companies benefit from free rent for one year, i.e. the entire duration of the incubation. They also have support on a case-by-case basis, on a voluntary basis, from La Communauté des Pépites with in particular a mentor company who share access to their experience. They also have access to the events offered such as workshops or entrepreneurial breakfasts during which they can be helped on business development themes such as marketing, accounting or business strategy, for example”, specifies Anaelle Mariepresident of the Community of nuggets who accompanies and supervises startups during incubation within the food nursery.
The four companies supported were chosen by a jury, made up of the Min and companies of the Community of nuggets, according to the state of progress of their project and the solidity of their file. At the end of their incubation year, they may choose to settle in the offices of the Grand Marché or leave.
By September 2022, a competition will be launched to choose the future incubated young shoots. Condition: they must be in phase 2 of their project to join the accelerator. “To benefit from the entire Min ecosystem, the company must be in a marketing phase because we have the skills on this part there”completed Anaelle Marie.
“The Min’s image has been completely dusted off”
Today, “the belly of Toulouse” has 170 companies. In 2020, it experienced a 3.6% decline in turnover to 375 million euros. This decrease is explained by the Covid-19 crisis which led to the cessation or reduction of deliveries in collective and commercial catering. Unlike other Min de France, the Grand Marché was able to limit the damage during the health crisis and plans to rebuild itself for the year 2021, as stated by its president, Dominique Batani.
“When you look at how far the Min has come since its takeover almost five years ago (speak Lumin’Toulouse consortium. editor’s note) we can only say bravo. Today the Min has an occupancy rate of 99%, more than 11,000 employees, 5,000 customers and more than 270 producers. These figures mark the success and the progress made. In a few years, the image of the Min has been completely dusted off”, welcomes Jean-Luc Moudenc, mayor of Toulouse and president of Toulouse Métropole who accompanied the Min project on this.
