Bel Group
Bel Group is a global leader in cheese, fruit and plant-based individual-portion snacks, with a mission to provide healthier and more sustainable food for everyone. Its internationally recognized portfolio includes The Laughing Cow®, Kiri®, Babybel®, Boursin®, Pom’Potes® and GoGo squeeZ®, along with some 20 local brands.
Together, these brands generated €3.83 billion in revenue in 2025.
Approximately 11,000 employees across 60 subsidiaries help bring Bel Group’s mission to life. Bel products are manufactured at nearly 30 production sites and distributed in more than 120 countries worldwide.
Six generations of family entrepreneurship
The Bel family traces its story all the way back to 1865.
As Jules Bel launched a Gruyère cheese aging and trading business in France’s Jura region, the world was undergoing a period of extraordinary change. The American Civil War came to an end, bringing the abolition of slavery in the United States.
Louis Pasteur, a fellow native of the Jura, revolutionized modern medicine by demonstrating the role of microbes and advancing the development of vaccines.
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) opened its first headquarters, marking the dawn of global finance.
At the same time, modern logistics began taking shape. Rail networks expanded rapidly, telegraph lines connected continents, and ports were modernized.
Against this backdrop, where local history intersected with world events, the Bel family story began.
Jules Bel, followed by his son, built on the Jura region’s unique strengths: rich pastures, dense forests, saltworks and iron oxide mines, the precision engineering inherited from watchmaking, expertise in eyewear manufacturing, woodworking and diamond cutting.
At the height of the Industrial Revolution, Jules sought to improve cheese-aging techniques so his products would mature more consistently and could be transported over longer distances. He also recognized the importance of developing local trade.
In 1911, Swiss brothers Gottfried, Emile and Otto Graf introduced a remarkable innovation: processed cheese.
Léon Bel had the inspired idea of packaging and marketing it. In 1921, this led to the creation of the iconic The Laughing Cow® brand and the registration of its trademark.
By 1922, Léon would go on to transform Fromageries Bel into a French public company (société anonyme) and steadily expand its industrial capabilities.
By 1924, Bel Group’s distinctive identity emerged from this combination of Jura craftsmanship: “miniature” cheese portions produced at high speed on an industrial scale.
Over the years, the family expanded its reach around the world thanks to visionary family leaders, each of whom left a lasting mark on the organization.
Robert Fiévet, Léon Bel’s son-in-law, played a pivotal role in broadening the Company’s brand portfolio and accelerating its international expansion.
Already a successful industrialist through his company La Carboxyque Française, a manufacturer of industrial gases and packaging solutions, he led Bel Group for nearly 55 years.
Beginning in 2002, Robert Fiévet’s grandson, Antoine Fiévet, helped establish the Company as a pioneer in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), culminating in Bel becoming a mission-led company in 2024, with the goal of making healthier, more sustainable food accessible to everyone.
The acquisition of the MOM Group and its iconic Pom’Potes brand in 2016 opened the door to a new wave of innovation. The Company expanded beyond cheese, developing portions made with dairy, fruit and vegetables, as well as 100% plant-based alternatives to cheese.
Between 2002 and 2022, Antoine Fiévet helped double the Company’s size in terms of revenue, operating income and shareholder equity.
In 2022, he handed over day-to-day leadership to the Company’s first non-family Chief Executive Officer, Cécile Béliot, while remaining Chairman.
During his tenure, both Bel Group and Unibel were taken private, returning the Company to 100% family ownership.
Today, the family is preparing the sixth generation of Jules Bel’s descendants to carry forward the governance and stewardship of Bel Group.
160 years of commitment
The family vision
A family business is far more than shared ownership of assets. It’s also a living institution built on continuity, governance and commitment.
Entrepreneurial families are deeply rooted in their communities. They take the long view, think across generations, and are committed to passing both their business and their values on to those who follow.
Within the Bel entrepreneurial family, this vision is shared and passed down from one generation to the next. The values that guide our decisions are set out in a formal Family Charter. These include integrity, high standards, unity, enthusiasm and humility.
The family is also an active member of the Family Business Network (FBN) and embraces its governance best practices.
A Family Council and a Family Assembly bring the Shareholders’ Agreements to life.
Food has become a global challenge. That’s why Unibel strives to bring the family’s ambition to life, fostering a responsible, sustainable and positive-impact growth model that respects every individual and embraces diversity.
This model is designed to protect the planet’s natural resources while creating value across its entire ecosystem, from farming communities to consumers and citizens. It supports both present and future generations and reflects our aspiration to be a positive force for the common good, extending beyond Bel Group’s own mission.
Building on this commitment, the family has launched a number of philanthropic organizations and initiatives supporting culture, children’s well-being, the Jura region and environmental protection. All of these foundations are directly connected to Bel Group, with the exception of the François Bel Foundation, which operates independently.
The Bel Corporate Foundation
Created in 2008, the Bel Corporate Foundation works to improve nutrition for the world’s most vulnerable children.
Led by Isabelle Fiévet, Antoine Fiévet’s wife, the Foundation provides financial support to nonprofit organizations in France and in every country where Bel Group operates. Each initiative is designed to address local needs and priorities.
Since 2022, the Foundation has also encouraged employee engagement through “Days For Good,” an annual week of volunteer activities coordinated with Bel teams across all our subsidiaries.
The House of The Laughing Cow
Created in 2009, this visitor center was the initiative of Catherine Sauvin, Léon Bel’s granddaughter. In fact, the House of The Laughing Cow® stands on the very site where the brand was born in 1921, in Lons-le-Saunier, in the heart of France’s Jura region.
Since opening its doors, this dynamic tourism site has become the definitive home of our brand’s history while offering a unique perspective on one of the most remarkable industrial and marketing success stories of 20th-century France. In 2025, it welcomed more than 70,000 visitors, making it one of the country’s leading brand-tourism destinations.
Deeply connected to its local community, The House of The Laughing Cow® also hosts cultural, culinary and sporting events throughout the year, including the region’s renowned cycling event, the Cyclo-sportive. Fittingly, The Laughing Cow® was already a partner of the Tour de France in the 1930s, a testament to the brand’s long-standing connection with cycling.
Lab'Bel
Lab’Bel was created in 2010 at the initiative of Laurent Fiévet, Léon Bel’s great-great-grandson, to support contemporary artistic creation.
Part endowment fund, part ideas lab and innovation platform with a deliberately unconventional spirit, Lab’Bel combines the development of an art collection – now on long-term loan to the Museum of Fine Arts in Dole – with exhibitions and artistic events throughout France and Europe.
Its projects bring together contemporary art, modernist architecture, poetry and music through a series of multidisciplinary artistic initiatives.
Lab’Bel also develops publications and artistic editions, including the annual The Laughing Cow® Collector Tins, launched in 2014, which invite leading contemporary artists to reinterpret the iconic brand while exploring the very notion of what constitutes a work of art – its purpose, its distribution and the value it creates.
The François Bel Foundation
François Bel, Léon Bel’s son, was a French producer and filmmaker whose work celebrated nature in its most authentic and essential form, inspiring respect for and protection of the living world.
His films, including Le Territoire des Autres (The Territory of Others), La Griffe et la Dent (The Claw and the Tooth) and L’Arche et les Déluges (The Ark and the Deluge), remain landmarks of wildlife filmmaking.
In accordance with François Bel’s wishes and through the funds he dedicated to it, the Foundation, backed by the Institut de France, has worked since 2019 to support cinematic essays, environmental conservation, and the preservation of his artistic legacy.
It supports emerging filmmakers and nonprofit organizations through awards, grants and direct funding. Each year, the Foundation also helps finance three festivals, each of which dedicates an evening to honoring François Bel.