Organized every year by the Youth and Business Association (AJE) based in Paris, this event aims to create a competition across the entire French territory among the different University Institutes of Technology. In order to bring students closer to local or regional businesses, students enrolled in IUTs with a focus on commercial techniques, as well as those from Business Schools, become “Ambassadors” of companies. By doing so, they commit to representing the company, studying it in all its forms, and writing a report showing its strengths in different categories (sustainability, quality, entrepreneurship, export, innovation, environmental safety). Reviewed by a panel, the best reports and companies are awarded, and their “representatives” are invited at no charge to the capital to receive their trophy and meet numerous national business leaders, who are also invited on this occasion.
This year Leslie Laurent and Baptiste Baraudou applied to represent the company “Les Fils de Marius Auda”, a producer of salads, aromatic herbs, and edible flowers. Located in the Var plain, the company was founded in 1936 in Gattières, in the Nice hinterland. Founded by Marius Auda, it is now managed by his four grandchildren and employs about fifty people. The company “Les Fils de Marius Auda” has been recognized for its quality, notably for its production line that ensures quality: it processes, packages without additives or preservatives, and markets fresh aromatic herbs, salads, as well as edible flowers (pansies, tagetes, snapdragons, and poet carnations), which are notably appreciated by chefs of Southern gastronomy and, more recently, by those working abroad. The “quality” approach, although only formally established in 1991, has always been integral to production, from seed to harvest, and corresponds “to the essence of agricultural work” in its most noble acceptance. Product traceability is complete and allows tracing back to the origin of the seeds used. A commendable demand in these times of food uncertainties.
Note: A prize in the “Safety and Environment” category was also awarded to another group of students from IUT Nice (Cyrine Klai, Laura Mercuri, and Jérémy Ferret) and the company SABLIERE DE CALENZANA BALAGNE, located in Upper Corsica.
