In 1968, health authorities required Joseph and Simone Bougro, butchers in Vend\u00e9e, to rebuild their laboratory, which represented a year’s worth of revenue. Forced to grow, they developed prepared meals, which were so successful that they created Sodebo in 1973 to move into industrial production. Then their three daughters, Marie-Laurence, Patricia, and B\u00e9n\u00e9dicte, now co-presidents, developed the business. Sodebo launched numerous innovations, diversifying into pasta, salads, etc. As variety often creates costly complexity in integrated companies, specialized factories were created. To bring everything together, a lean management specialist helped the executives structure the company, and Margaux Mercier, a member of the third generation of the founding family, was involved in this transformation. Sodebo, a medium-sized company with 3,000 employees manufacturing more than a million products every day, is now a benchmark in lean management.<\/p>\n