Medria is accelerating its international development

Medria is accelerating its international development

(L. to R.) Jean-Pierre Lemonnier, CEO of Medria, and Emmanuel Mounier, Managing Director, with HeatPhone heat detection collars. (© Bruno Panchèvre)

Medria, a pioneer in the field of remote monitoring equipment for use in the surveillance of reproduction and health in cattle, has made clear its ambitions for the international market.

After prudent beginnings in 2009 exporting to countries on the borders of France with similar economic models, e.g. Benelux countries, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, Medria is now targeting the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain and the USA. At the same time, export sales have risen from 5% of turnover in 2010 (1.6 million euros) to 10 % in 2011 (3.4 million euros) and are forecast to top 30% in 2012, at an estimated 5 million euros. Products are sold on the international market through local distributors, mainly insemination cooperatives. Of the company’s 38 staff, 10 work on the development of sales and, by the end of this year, they will be joined by a further three people, specifically for exports.

The company is continuing to innovate – after the Vel’Phone (prediction of calving) in 2007 and the HeatPhone (detection of animals in heat) in 2010, it will be presenting the San’Phone at the next Space, the animal husbandry exhibition in Rennes in September. It is a bolus, a sort of large gel capsule swallowed by the animal. It then sits permanently in the stomach. The sensors in the bolus provide a continuous record of the animal’s temperature. Transmission to a GSM radio base and analysis of the data via a web platform enable farmers to forecast certain diseases and adapt any treatment to ensure maximum efficacy.

Medria, set up in 2004 by Jean-Pierre Lemonnier and Emmanuel Mounier, operates from Châteaugiron south of Rennes. Today, its equipment and services are used on more than 3,400 farms.