Minus eighteen degrees : this is the freezing temperature. Prepare and market frozen foods, it is first of all being able to produce and control this temperature. Le groupe Kryos, created in 2010, structures and brings together the professions linked to cold and freezing working around its historic brand Ilôt Surgelé and its brand new organic and vegan frozen food brand Aügur. In the wake of this latest diversification, the Kryos group generalizes sustainable development within its entities : energy efficiency, reduction of packaging, eco-friendly cleaning techniques and, shortly, electric delivery vehicles.
Le groupe Kryos (" cold ", in greek) supervises and coordinates the activities of companies with cold as a common denominator. Activities that, while being located upstream and downstream of Ilôt Surgelé, have their autonomy outside the brand. This autonomy of action, by promoting their own development, strengthens the whole. First stone of the building, the company founded by Norbert Baesa in 1993 : the Mascarene Fishing Society or Sopema. Norbert Baesa, visionary entrepreneur, gave, with freezing, an additional outlet for small-scale coastal fishing. Becoming a purchasing center for frozen products, Sopema notably keeps alive one of the oldest food traditions in Reunion Island : la saurisserie de morue, snook and herring. The Ilôt Surgelé commercial brand was born in 2003 under the direction of Christophe Aigueperse, founder of the Kryos group. The creation of an independent technical branch has become essential to perpetuate internal control of cold in the management of refrigerated delivery vehicles and industrial and commercial cold installations of Sopema and stores.. These are the functions of Réunion Froid Technic companies (RFT), created in 2015, and Cold Center Meeting (RFC), created in 2020.
Cold Meeting Technic delivers its 90th refrigerated vehicle
Combining the professions of bodybuilder and refrigeration engineer, Réunion Froid Technic has an unrivaled level of references on the island.
“Refrigerated vans are not imported ready-made. Most of the time, These are the car brand dealers who call on us to fit out their customer's vehicle. This consists of setting up a cold producing group and installing integrated cells, isothermal and refrigerated, which fit into the bodywork and maintain the temperature”, explains the director, Christophe Vigier. The challenge of controlling the cold, for Christophe Vigier and his five collaborators, is of size : they provide turnkey vehicles for the transportation of perishable goods and, plus crucial, for the transport of pharmaceutical and medical products (sang, organs, etc.). RFT only works with reputable suppliers : Zanotti (Daikin group), market leader in refrigeration units, and Lamberet, refrigerated vehicle equipment manufacturer. Wanting to go further, the company has had its level of expertise and professionalism officially recognized by becoming the Cemafroid test center, national body approved for issuing certificates of capacity to transport operators of perishable foodstuffs : RFT ensures mandatory technical inspections of refrigerated transport vehicles. The company also issues ATP Cemafroid technical conformity certificates, essential for the circulation of new refrigeration equipment. Finally, RFT carries out UTAC conformity and approval tests applying to modified vehicles, refrigerated or not, to receive a registration document. No higher credentials could be obtained..
Industrial and commercial refrigeration for craftsmen
Specialized in cold equipment, industrial and commercial, Réunion Froid Center meets the needs of an exclusively professional clientele. In addition to Sopema and the Ilôt Surgelé brand stores, she mainly works, so far, with food artisans (boucher, butcher, cheese maker, fishmonger…) for which it ensures the installation and maintenance of refrigerated furniture and displays and cold rooms.
Sopema OI goes green
The purchasing center, transformation and distribution of the Kryos group operates with self-consumption of energy. A photovoltaic plant covers its electricity needs.
Gone are the days of collecting fish in the port of Saint-Gilles from the very beginning... Central purchasing, transformation, distribution : these are today the functions of the twenty or so employees of Sopema, production and logistics center which, under the direction of Cédric Ramin, ensure the supply of the twelve Ilôt Surgelé stores and CHR customers, Supermarkets and frozen food company communities, i.e. a total of some 1,500 to 2,000 references without counting the new products for the holiday period. Sopema has its own meat and fish cutting and packaging workshop. His “custom” work, allowing cuts as close as possible to Reunionese ways of cooking, is a strong point. But what also defines Sopema, today, au sein du groupe Kryos, is that the company is at the forefront of sustainable development and sets an example. Solidarity action is not new : Sopema makes donations to associations helping vulnerable people. More recent, energy efficiency : Sopema has been operating for self-consumption since 2021 (it is not connected to the EDF network). A photovoltaic installation covers the electricity needs of its cold units, its cutting equipment and lighting. The Ilôt Surgelé store in La Possession has switched to LED lighting. Energy management, with real-time consumption monitoring, has been set up. The thermal insulation of the building has been improved. Store managers were trained in the rational use of air conditioning.
An ecological shift
The ecological transition is reflected in the management of paper waste, cardboard and plastic packaging. Following the recommendations of ADEME, Sopema has implemented rigorous selective sorting and limits the use of plastics. Finally, ecological cleanliness, essential issue for a processor and distributor of frozen products, is now the rule with new cleaning techniques and the exclusive use of eco-labeled products (see box). In this transition of practices, Sopema is also in tune with the requirements of its suppliers, themselves responsible for the distribution conditions of their products.
The Kryos group launches an industrial and commercial cleaning activity
Considering your own needs for cleaning industrial and commercial spaces and refrigeration systems, and market needs, the Kryos group is preparing to create a new specialized company next year. Her name : Utopia. Chaired by an ecological cleaning professional, Laurent Narayanin, this company will implement cleaning and disinfection techniques
