“Chartered accountant, I left my CDI to become an oyster farmer”

“My great-great-grandfather created an oyster farming business in 1902, in La Tremblade (Charente-Maritime). Since then, in my family, all generations have succeeded. I have always been immersed in this world.

Younger, and like many, I didn't really know what I wanted to do… My parents and grandparents always advised me to go to school. After my bac S, I went to Nantes, in the chartered accountancy sector. This course included subjects that particularly interested me: management control, law, auditing, or even finance.

With my master's degree in hand, I joined an accounting firm at In extenso, in Chartres (Eure-et-Loir), as a trainee chartered accountant. Working with different sectors of activity, having a global vision of companies, supporting and advising business leaders corresponded to me.

Four years later, I moved to Tours and joined the audit firm Deloitte, as a financial auditor. My role: to control the accounts of companies. A few months after my arrival in the group, I obtained my diploma of chartered accountant which I had prepared in three years after the master.

Use your skills to develop the business

Since leaving home at the age of 18, I have come back very regularly to the family farm, on weekends or during my holidays, to advise my father and my brother, who were partners. For example, I developed different brands and appellations for the production center that they developed on the Île de Ré.

At the end of 2021, my father and my brother offered to join me and be in charge of the accounting, administrative and commercial part. At that time, I was on a permanent contract, I had a comfortable salary and an interesting position that offered prospects for development in a large company. But on the other hand, I aspired to a different living environment, to reside in a city on a human scale. I missed the sea, the oyster beds, the proximity to nature!

Office and field work

In the process, I quit my job at Deloitte. Since then, I have participated in the development of strategic orientations and take care of administrative and accounting procedures. It frees up a lot of time for my brother and my father, who are in charge of production and shipping.

Our production is carried out locally, on the Île de Ré and in the Marennes-Oléron basin, around the shipping center. It covers 14 hectares of maritime land and 19 hectares of clears (breeding ponds for oysters). Between the birth of an oyster and its consumption, it takes between three to four years. During their growth, it is often necessary, during the tides, to return the pockets in which they grow, to work the shape and avoid the development of algae with the sun.

Perpetuate know-how

This year – my first as a partner – has been complicated by the health crisis. We navigated in uncertainty about changing consumption habits, which required adapting quickly as the situation evolved.

On a daily basis, we do not count our hours. It's a job whose pace of work matches that of the tides. But it's gratifying to be able to offer a local product, friendly and festive. And it is a pride to be able to perpetuate, with my brother, the family business and its know-how.

On a personal level, I moved to the village of 5,000 inhabitants where I grew up, by the sea and next to the forest. It is a very privileged living environment. Today, I feel perfectly fulfilled there. “