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The Lactalis crisis is a typical example of a systemic crisis

Lactalis has been in turmoil for a full month now. The crisis is now global and systemic, affecting all stakeholders in the sector. So it was time to take another look at the case and analyse the various parties involved. Analysis made with Visibrain. This article is divided into 3 main sections:

Lessons learned
Analysis of quantitative data
Telling the story of the crisis through tweets

1. Lessons learned

a) This is not a bad buzz

What is particularly interesting about this crisis is that it follows the curve and cycle of a traditional crisis. The crisis curve is striking:

First, there is a prodromal stage where we get signals via a series of warning symptoms that the crisis may emerge. The crisis first emerges through a simple recall of classic products, of which there are many.
The crisis then emerges through an event and the corresponding damage. Little by little, more and more elements appear.
The third stage is the chronic stage, during which the persistent effects of the crisis are dealt with. This chronic stage is reached at the end of January, one month after the crisis. At this stage, all the stakeholders are in place.
Finally, the resolution stage means that the crisis is no longer a concern for stakeholders.

This means that the progress of the crisis is in total contrast to the progress of a bad buzz, generally with a pattern that follows a Gaussian curve characterised by the buzz and then its extinction. This is quite logical, given the systemic nature of the crisis and the fact that we're not talking about a micro-crisis in terms of reputation, but a much more complex whole with multiple stakeholders and legal time to follow. Just imagine, you now have all these stakeholders who have paid a negative price for the crisis and who are calling you to account:

The authorities: they are being singled out for their handling of the crisis. Did they carry out the checks properly? Did they manage the crisis properly once it became known? What's more, the inspection services are calling for more resources at a time when LREM has just cut jobs.
Suppliers: already squeezed by Lactalis in negotiations, they are going to pay for the bad reputation of milk after the butter problem.
Distributors: both retailers and pharmacists could be accused of continuing to sell contaminated batches. They will inevitably blame Lactalis.
Employees: who have lost their sense of purpose, and whose factory has shut down.
Consumers and victims: they expect explanations and reparations. What's more, a trial is imminent.

The crisis also manages to recruit through time:

b) Response strategies

Lactalis' communication was rather poor. The first strategy was to reiterate its lack of understanding of the crisis. "We don't understand what happened". This lack of understanding still seems to be present in the communication, including in the CEO's interview yesterday in the Journal du Dimanche. In view of this and the lack of information, the crisis communication procedure is to issue a reminder of the procedure. This is what the Communications Director did, pointing out that many lorries arrive with raw milk from nearby farms. It is then heated to a very high temperature and transformed by drying. Vitamins and proteins are then added before the result is put into milk cartons. And the Communications Director reminds us that during his entire time at Lactalis, he has experienced less than 5 cases of salmonella, without this causing any problems, because the batches had been completely destroyed.

c) The myth of the hidden living rich

One of the big problems of the crisis is the very figure of the company CEO and the cult of secrecy, right up to the disclosure of his accounts. The image of the hidden castle that must not be seen, combined with his silence during the crisis, has been particularly criticised. But can he be criticised for not speaking out? And for what reason? When Guillaume Pepy arrives at the scene of an accident, there is something to see. There is empathy to be expressed. What could the CEO of Lactalis do in a crisis where the location is not defined? What could he possibly say? His interview in the JDD is simply the fact that the tension had become impossible to sustain. However, Lactaris burns a trigger by using its ultimate communication lever.

https://twitter.com/jllacapelle/status/951507142296686592 https://twitter.com/Cdanslair/status/951864504081682432 https://twitter.com/CNEWS/status/951371992518877185

Lactalis' total lack of empathy has also been criticised. However, empathy, the remedy advocated by all bad buzz experts, is an unusable weapon in this case. What legitimacy does he have to speak out? What leverage could the CEO use to show empathy? What would this false empathy achieve other than to comment on its fallacy? However, what can be said about Lactalis' communication is that it does not have enough communication levers at its disposal. It is obliged to answer questions from journalists, the media and the authorities, because it has no channel of its own. This lack of freedom prevents it from framing its messages and establishing a crisis tempo, and means that Lactalis is losing out on the most important aspect of communication: time management. However, creating an account now would be counter-productive and will be criticised from the outset. This lack of legitimacy and this lack of space show why the boss of Lactalis cannot be a Michel Edouard Leclerc.

https://twitter.com/cyril_bryo/status/952485816563060736

d) A catalyst for past crises and debates

Major media crises act as a catalyst. All the Lactalis crises were recalled: water contamination, pressure on farmers, the group's total secrecy, etc. In the same way, for distribution, many crises are brought back into the public sphere. Similarly, in the retail sector, many crises are brought back into the public sphere. https://twitter.com/PetitPotamm/status/951890332454703104 https://twitter.com/an_conda/status/952206590299566081 https://twitter.com/LANDEYves/status/952108110558187520 Similarly, many players such as the vegan lobby, control bodies complaining about budget cuts and others are taking advantage of the halo created by the crisis. All of this is then used by politicians to position themselves.

2. The analysis

a) The news feed of tweets: a crisis that builds to a crescendo

The crisis continued to escalate in intensity, reaching a climax on 12 January, the date on which it became systemic, affecting absolutely everyone. It received 130,000 tweets from 55,343 different actors, with an average of three tweets per author, which shows that the situation is stagnating.

b) Semantic analysis

The most frequently used expressions are, of course, generic words such as salmonella, infant milk and English declensions. The CEO is also particularly targeted, especially as this semantic cloud does not include retweets. The legal aspect via complaints is also addressed. Conversations, however, are not crystallised around a specific hashtag. Lactalis is used:

C) Most shared links

The most shared links show Gorafi in first place, but above all the international dimension of the crisis.

This geographical focus is also reflected in the map showing the location of tweets:

3. The story on Twitter

The crisis began when Health Alerts called for the recall of infant milk. It also announced that Lactaris had set up a toll-free number to provide information on batches. The information was then picked up by a number of media outlets.

There was total incomprehension, including at Lactaris. Indeed, the group's spokesman confided that this was the first time they had experienced a crisis of this magnitude. At the same time, Arnaud Boisnard, Managing Director of Lactalis Nutrition Santé, has been making the rounds of the radio stations, claiming that the products were salmonella-compliant. He also said he had taken additional samples.

At the same time, opponents of Lactalis were taking to the airwaves. They point to old headlines, such as the fact that Lactalis has been discharging waste water into the Isère river for years... https://twitter.com/protegevosbiens/status/937638911962157056

Lactalis was soon inundated with calls from all sides. The government extended the product recall after five new cases were reported. Bercy pulled 620 products off the shelves.

https://twitter.com/LeHuffPost/status/939783025151365121 Strong negative reactions. The CEO of Lactalis, Emmanuel Besnier, was taken to task. https://twitter.com/lucasgautheron/status/939817540095807493 https://twitter.com/NTM_FN/status/939806080716197888 A call for a boycott has also been launched. https://twitter.com/rgxhgrg/status/939802165614448640 The story went global, with the foreign press picking up on it. https://twitter.com/APBusiness/status/940181168548470785

For some families, the sequence of events was unacceptable: they decided to take group action against Lactalis. At that point, on 11 December, 10 families filed a complaint for endangering the lives of others. One father followed suit and said: "This is a health scandal, our children are being poisoned.

https://twitter.com/Europe1/status/942629595395661824

The following week, criticism mounted against Emmanuel Besnier's communications. A boycott campaign had been launched, with tens of thousands of signatures.

It has also been revealed that 625 rather than 620 batches of products are affected. Now it's the turn of UFC Que Choisir to lodge a complaint of deception against Lactalis. At the same time, investigations have been carried out by the DGCCRF and the DDCSPP at the Lataclis site.

https://twitter.com/lemondefr/status/942802112102256641

In the end, Lactalis recalled all French production. Meanwhile, the Mayenne plant was particularly on edge. As in similar cases, the internal troops are affected. One employee commented:"It's a real shame to see our company being singled out for this, it calls into question everything we do". The commentary on the crisis is always acerbic.

https://twitter.com/BrunoMasure/status/945898637959335937 Even the Vegan lobbies are taking advantage of the media opportunity to reiterate some of their messages: https://twitter.com/VeganImpact/status/947123359967363072 At the same time, we can see that even Cameroonian networks are warning of the situation. Similarly, batches in Madagascar have been recalled, while the Ivorian government has ordered the withdrawal of infant milk. https://twitter.com/Asitchoma/status/946510481392590855 https://twitter.com/Gouvci/status/946701711527305216

The judicial aspects of the crisis have also been launched, with the news that a preliminary investigation has been launched into endangering the lives of others, unintentional injury and aggravated deception.

https://twitter.com/lemondefr/status/945626387867717632

At this point, it was decided to open the decoding rooms to remind people about Lactalis, a company that is perhaps a little unknown to the public. The press emphasised several points:

It is a historic family group that has been in existence for over 85 years. It has grown from a French region to a global company through acquisitions.
The culture of secrecy is total. The CEO, son of the historic boss, is secretive and likes to keep a low profile. In almost 20 years, he has never given a single interview to the press.
A company in crisis after crisis.

On 2 January 2018, an article in the Canard Enchaîné revealed that Lactalis knew and said nothing. The announcement came as a shock to many people.

https://twitter.com/PorcherThomas/status/948523639162462208 https://twitter.com/kevincarrierefr/status/948448885575421953

The prefecture of Mayenne, which was implicated in the article in Le Canard Enchainé, denies reports that salmonella may have been detected during checks carried out by the DDCSPP. The French Minister for Agriculture is also speaking out. Élisabeth Doineau, a UDI senator, published a press release defending Lactalis, pointing out the importance of the group for employment in the region and the fact that the dairy industry was once again being placed in a difficult reputational phase. At the same time, we learn that Lactalis is continuing its economic activity and buying up Iceland's flagship yoghurt industry. Related news also emerges that the Besnier family has invested €1.7 billion in Brussels via a holding company.

On 7 January, the first weak signal came from Nord Éclair, which reported that a Leclerc shop had sold potentially salmonella-contaminated milk to an individual.

https://twitter.com/foodwatch_fr/status/949955231810555904

An initial report was also published: thirty-three infants, thirteen of whom were hospitalised, had suffered diarrhoea caused by these bacteria following consumption of the Picot and Milumel milk brands produced at the site. In the week that followed, the news spread like wildfire. The outburst was even greater, with a photograph of Emmanuel Besnier alone attracting more than 5,200 retweets.

https://twitter.com/Portes_Thomas/status/951488148143591424 https://twitter.com/PorcherThomas/status/951795151202070528 Distributors are also in the eye of the storm, as they continued to sell after the recall date. https://twitter.com/efoulon1/status/951398556828688384 And new players are pushing their political agendas. Government departments say they are underfunded and are being helped by Benoit Hamon's communication on the subject. https://twitter.com/Cdanslair/status/951863696141246469 Pharmacies are also concerned, and the Ordre des pharmaciens is considering disciplinary action. https://twitter.com/franceinfo/status/951460941513744387 The same applies to the farmers' association, which is demanding accountability: https://twitter.com/JeunesAgri/status/951851262227730439 https://twitter.com/FNSEA/status/951851219290656774

Former employees say the crisis was more than predictable. "Many of us in the department are not at all surprised by what is happening today. When you see sieves on the floor, when you see brushes ending up on the floor or rubbing shoulders with all the dust from a week's production, which is used to clean the inside of pipes... We shouldn't be surprised if a powder circuit is contaminated". He concludes: "The priority was clearly production". This was too much for the CEO of Lactalis, who was directly accused. He gave an interview to JDD.

"In the Lactalis affair, there was information about batch numbers and computer codes. Each new piece of information cancelled out the previous one, and our system became saturated,

We are far from the end: Cash Investigation is going to do a report on the subject. The crisis is therefore systemic and global. It will not be resolved in 10 days.

https://twitter.com/cashinvestigati/status/952177302858846208https://twitter.com/cashinvestigati/status/952177302858846208