The 20th
anniversary
edition
March 14 & 15, 2025
at UNESCO • Paris

Alain Keravec, you were appointed CEO of Nature & Découvertes last October. As a digital and e-commerce specialist, you were instrumental in the success of the marketplace activity at the Fnac Darty group, which owns Nature & Découvertes. Your mission now is to guide the brand back to sustainable growth while strengthening and developing its omnichannel and experiential model. What path do you intend to take?

Alain Keravec: Nature & Découvertes is a heritage brand with a very strong DNA. In line with the brand’s values, I took on the role of CEO with great pride and enthusiasm. I am committed to preserving its pioneering concept of “doing business with respect for people and nature,” along with its concrete commitments.

However, in order to ensure the sustainability of this legacy, it is essential to accelerate the company’s transformation to quickly return to sustainable growth. From my first weeks, I made it a priority to be as close as possible to the teams on the ground to understand the challenges and lay the groundwork for upcoming decisions. A strategic roadmap will soon be shared with all teams.

Among our priorities, we need to restructure and renew our product offerings to meet customer expectations while staying true to our identity. To do this, we also need to deepen our customer knowledge in order to offer personalized and inspiring experiences across all our channels. Another key goal is to reaffirm our anchor points by highlighting our unique offerings and pioneering commitments. Strengthening our omnichannel model is equally important; we need to accelerate the development of our e-commerce site, particularly through our marketplace, which serves as a laboratory for product innovation.

My ambition is clear: to make Nature & Découvertes a company that is increasingly engaged, innovative, and attentive to the aspirations of its customers, while continuing to be a pioneer in responsible and experiential commerce.

Previously, you served as CEO of WeFix, a subsidiary of the Fnac Darty Group specializing in mobile phone repairs, refurbishing, and accessories sales. How will this experience guide you in your new role at Nature & Découvertes?

At WeFix, I had the opportunity to lead a company focused on the circular economy, a model that perfectly addresses current issues of sustainability and responsible consumption. This experience reinforced my belief that it is essential to combine economic performance with positive impact, a balance that is also at the heart of Nature & Découvertes' DNA.

Nature & Découvertes' Sustainable Innovation division has set objectives, among other things, to implement concrete actions around circularity, product reparability, and packaging optimization. These initiatives reflect a commitment to continuous improvement in order to offer products that are increasingly responsible and aligned with our customers' expectations. I fully support and aim to strengthen this dynamic.

Beyond the sustainability aspect, my time at WeFix also helped me develop an agile and pragmatic approach to business management: identifying real customer needs, offering innovative solutions and services, and rallying teams around a meaningful project. These are key elements for supporting the transformation of Nature & Découvertes, whether it's by rethinking our product offerings and improving their clarity and understanding by our customers, or strengthening our omnichannel model.

At the end of 2022, Nature & Découvertes adopted the status of a mission-driven company, formalizing its purpose: “To choose concrete solutions to support the daily transition to sustainable lifestyles that are committed to biodiversity.” What are your ambitions for the brand's evolution, and how will they integrate with the company’s mission?

Adopting the status of a mission-driven company is a voluntary step, with the company’s purpose as our guiding principle, enshrined in our statutes. It represents a real commitment to society and legally binds us to each of our stakeholders, demanding daily responsibility.

My ambition is to accelerate the transformation of Nature & Découvertes while staying true to our mission. We will continue working toward the objectives we have set, regularly measuring our progress using established indicators, ensuring transparency and responsibility toward our stakeholders.

This commitment becomes even more meaningful in an economic context marked by a consumption crisis and increasing competition. While some may choose to abandon ambitious goals, we see our mission as a compass. It guides us and encourages us to stay aligned with our values. It is in these times that our purpose proves its relevance, strengthening our ability to innovate and make choices that benefit both our customers, biodiversity, and society as a whole.

Nature & Découvertes has been a partner of the Université de la terre since its first edition in 2005 and will participate again in the anniversary edition to be held at UNESCO on March 14-15, 2025. It’s a company with a strong commitment, deeply rooted in the values of its founders. How do you see these commitments evolving over the next 20 years? And will you continue to pursue this direction?

Since the first edition in 2005, Nature & Découvertes has been proud to be a partner of the Université de la Terre, a key event that our Foundation has always actively supported. Following the success of previous editions, we are excited to renew this partnership in 2025, marking the 20th anniversary of this engaged initiative and the 35th anniversary of Nature & Découvertes.

This new edition is a unique opportunity to reaffirm our commitments and raise awareness among a wide audience about environmental issues and education through direct contact with nature. Both David Sève, Director of the Nature & Découvertes Foundation, and I will participate in roundable discussions to share our insights.

The values upheld by Nature & Découvertes since its creation are more relevant than ever. However, in the coming years, our responsibility will not be simply to maintain course; we will need to amplify and adapt it to the constantly evolving challenges. My ambition is to position Nature & Découvertes in an even more proactive approach, multiplying innovative initiatives to meet the needs of new generations and anticipate societal and environmental transformations.

We will continue to make Nature & Découvertes an engaged and inspiring player, capable of being a model of sustainable innovation and actively contributing to a world that respects biodiversity, while accompanying the transition to more responsible lifestyles.

Nature & Découverte Foundation, created in 1994 to safeguard life, celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2024. What are the foundation’s projects, and how do you see them being integrated with the activities of Nature & Découvertes?

The Nature & Découvertes Foundation is at the heart of our corporate project. It is not just a moral guarantee; it reflects our deep convictions and concrete commitments. Since 1994, our Foundation has been actively involved in preserving biodiversity and promoting active education through direct contact with nature.

Each year, it funds 150 nonprofit projects, and over the past 30 years, it has supported more than 3,000 projects with a total of over €15 million. Our Foundation also launched a new model of philanthropy, the "Appel à Communs" in 2022, which helps amplify the coordination of actions and the global funding given to associations, by uniting a network of Foundations. These are profound and sincere commitments that our mission-driven status aims to perpetuate.

The Nature & Découvertes Foundation is funded by 10% of the company's net profits and €1 from each new membership to the Nature & Découvertes Club. Since 2015, the "l’ARRONDI en caisse" initiative has helped complete the funding for the projects supported by the Foundation.

Each year, we dedicate eight months, from January to August, to “local ARRONDI”: every store, including our e-commerce site, supports a local association that has already received financial backing from the Nature & Découvertes Foundation. The money collected is then donated to the association. From September 1st to December 31st, we launch “national ARRONDI,” focusing on a unique environmental cause backed by a national association, which brings together our entire store network and e-commerce site.

In an economic context marked by inflation and shrinking consumption, our challenge is to maintain the level of commitment of the Nature & Découvertes Foundation. To do this, we will continue to raise awareness among our customers and employees, while strengthening the connection between the Foundation’s actions and the activities of Nature & Découvertes.