Samantha Mane, the heiress taking her family’s Bar-sur-Loup group past €2bn

The first woman to run Mane since its founding in 1871, she has completed her first acquisition and delivered record sales in her first year at the helm of the Alpes-Maritimes' largest company.

Above the Loup gorges, the village of Bar-sur-Loup is home to one of the biggest companies on the French Riviera, though few locals realise it. Mane, the flavours and fragrances specialist, has passed the €2bn sales mark for the first time: €2.012bn in 2025, up 6.5% at constant exchange rates and scope, according to Le Journal des Entreprises. Samantha Mane has been in charge for a year.

She is the fifth generation of the family to run the business, and the first woman. Her appointment was announced in February 2025: she succeeded her father, Jean Mane, who had led the group since 1995. The group remains family-owned and independent, a rare status in a sector dominated by listed giants.

The story begins in 1871, when Victor Mane founded the company to extract aromatic materials from the flowers and plants of Provence. His sons, Eugène and Gabriel, expanded it internationally. In 1959 Maurice Mane took over and moved into flavours for the food industry, a shift that would underpin the group’s strength.

Samantha Mane did not reach the top simply by inheritance. She joined the family business in the mid-2000s and in 2016 took charge of the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, the group’s largest market. According to Mane, sales in the region more than doubled under her leadership between 2016 and 2024. She also oversaw the opening of a fine fragrance site in Paris and the company’s digitalisation.

Her first year as chief executive was marked by an acquisition. In January Mane announced the purchase of ChemoSensoryx Biosciences, a Belgian biotech based in Louvain-la-Neuve that specialises in taste and smell receptors. The price was not disclosed. According to the group’s statement, the deal “will strengthen Mane’s capabilities to provide global and constantly evolving expertise in flavour and fragrance solutions”.

The group’s reach extends far beyond the Grasse area. Mane describes itself as the world’s fifth-largest player in flavours, fragrances and ingredients, with 8,000 employees in 40 countries. Le Journal des Entreprises ranks it first among companies in the Alpes-Maritimes.

Within the industry, Samantha Mane is also vice-president of Prodarom, the national association of aromatic raw material manufacturers. It is a way of championing expertise born around Grasse, which the group now exports to every continent.

One question every family succession raises remains: would she be in this seat without the name? Birth opens the door; it does not guarantee results. Her years running Europe, the Middle East and Africa argue in her favour. But leading a global group against listed rivals able to raise billions to buy competitors is another matter. Independence, the family’s pride, can also become a constraint.

The challenge for the coming years comes down to one equation: growing in a consolidating market while preserving the independence of a family house more than 150 years old. The new chief executive has started with research, betting on the science of sensory receptors.