Page 84 - Biorefinery 2030

52 2 An Original Business Model: The Integrated Biorefinery

Fig. 2.18 Changing structure of the cooperatives and joint subsidiaries

subsidiaries are often jointly owned with other cooperatives or with
non-cooperative industrial or banking firms 44 (c.f. Fig. 2.18).
According to Mauget (2013), all of these economic changes can disturb the
relationship between the cooperative and its members. One of the major challenges
for cooperatives is without doubt that of developing their members’ “market”
culture. They need to understand better the socio-economic environment in which
their cooperative operates and take a more active part in the changes cooperative
groups are undergoing. Cooperatives need then to inform and train not only their
members but also their industrial and financial partners, to make sure each stake-
holder understands the mind-set of the others.
Eleven firms are present on the site of the biorefinery. However, the platform is
much broader in scope if we take into consideration all the indirect stakeholders and
subsidiaries (Cf. Fig. 2.19).
The risk represented by this type of financial arrangement in terms of loss of
power for the members, the original cooperatives and the holding groups
(c.f. Box 2.4) does not outweigh the advantages of such arrangements. This is
particularly true if the rules for payment of the farmers, the ratio between dividends
and retained profit of profit retained, and the rules for changes in majority
shareholdings are settled beforehand.

44
Thus, two different logics find themselves combined: cooperative and capitalist.