As the 2020 Woman of the Year in Agriculture, Veronique Sallin feels a sense of responsibility.
“People are looking to me to set an example,” she says. Sallin is already the epitome of leadership, drawing on her 40-plus years with Groveland-based IMG Enterprises, co-founded with her husband, Michel. A family-owned company specializing in agriculture and land management, IMG includes two subsidiaries – Cherrylake, Inc., an ornamental tree farm and landscape contractor, and IMG Citrus, a fully integrated fresh citrus company.
New Country, New Opportunity
The Sallins are natives of France – Michel actually grew up on an apple farm in Normandy. After visiting the Sunshine State searching for investment opportunities in agriculture, the Sallins started a brokerage business selling Florida grapefruit in France. They marketed a modest 10,000 cartons the first year (1980), and within seven years, they became the largest export broker of Florida grapefruit with 1.4 million cartons sold. The Sallins purchased citrus groves in Manatee and Lake counties, but devasting freezes in the mid-1980s wiped out the crop. The Sallins decided to convert the Groveland property into containerized tree farming. Today, the Cherrylake subsidiary has more than 1,800 acres of containerized trees, shrubs and palms and is the third-largest ornamental tree farm in the Southeast, as well as one of the fastest-growing landscape contractors in the country.
Ultimately, the citrus groves were relocated to the warmer climate of Indian River County. IMG purchased a packing house in 1999, becoming a fully integrated citrus company. Today, IMG Citrus operates as one of Florida’s largest distributors of fresh citrus with over 5,000 acres of grapefruit, tangerine and orange groves. Grapefruit trees represent 75% of their grove lands.
Exporting Directly to Retailers
Throughout the company’s growth, Veronique served as both vice president of sales and marketing and director of organizational development. Typically, an exporter finds a partner – an importer – who handles distribution to retailers. The Sallins were able to leverage the connections of family members, who were already doing business with retailers in France, to sell directly to retail. “We’ve always believed we can’t fully understand the needs of the consumer if we don’t have contact with retailers,” Veronique says. She says communication works both ways – foreign retailers connect directly with IMG Citrus as well, to understand growers’ challenges. Veronique’s work to push Florida citrus into foreign markets has successfully shortened and streamlined IMG’s supply chain.
In recent years, IMG Citrus has turned its attention to domestic sales. Pricing pressures, declining citrus production, transportation costs, environmental concerns and other factors have influenced growers like the Sallins to sell more fresh citrus in the U.S. “Demand for locally grown products has increased so much,” she says. “It’s also part of our philosophy of being a sustainable and environmentally concerned company to sell more locally.” Today, more than 50% of the citrus IMG grows is sold in the United States.
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Empowering Employees, Shaping Company Culture
Without sales, no company can survive – but for Veronique, shaping company culture is equally important, perhaps even more so. To identify who IMG really was as a company, “we asked ourselves, ‘What do we believe in? What is our deeper purpose? What are our values?’” Those answers helped define the IMG culture, which includes open, honest communication; embracing change, learning and innovation; fostering beauty, cleanliness and safety of their environment; and entrepreneurial decision making at every employee level.
“Having an identity is important both inside and outside of the company,” Veronique says. “People who deal with us – from partners to customers – know what they can expect in how they are treated. Identifying our culture also helps us hire the right employees who will be happy within this culture.” IMG Enterprises is consistently listed among the Orlando Business Journal’s Top 100 Privately Owned Companies. With over 550 employees, IMG has also been named a top employer in Lake County.
Accolades, such as the National Order of Merit presented by former French President Nicolas Sarkozy for Veronique’s community work in highlighting French culture and heritage, are appreciated. What makes her most proud, however, is the fact that several children of IMG’s initial workers have now received college degrees and joined the company in management positions. “This is very rewarding for me personally,” says Veronique, who recently retired from day-to-day operations but remains on the IMG board of directors.
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Encouraging Other Women in Ag
The Woman of the Year award honors females who have made exceptional contributions to Florida agriculture. Veronique says she is “humbled by this great honor,” and hopes to utilize the platform to encourage other women to consider working in agriculture. “It’s an incredible industry where we contribute to peoples’ health and well-being,” she says. “At the same time, it’s become so high tech, with scientific progress bringing agriculture to such a level of professionalism and complexity that we should be able to continue to attract a lot of talent to the field. I’m hoping I can encourage that with this award.”
