Who’s Who 2024: Adeline Mabilat, national brand manager, Nortera

As an active wife and mother of two young daughters, Adeline Mabilat cares about the quality of food her family eats. And as Nortera’s national brand manager, retail, for Del Monte Canada, she’s thrilled to have led the development of a new snack food that’s “good for people from all walks of life.”

“It’s healthier and more savoury,” Mabilat said about Del Monte’s new Fruit Chunks in Fruit Puree snack cup. The snack cups feature soft pieces of two fruit flavours—pear or peach—in creamy fruit puree sweetened with concentrated grape juice. It won a DUX Grands Prix Gala award.

For Mabilat, a 43-year-old with a wealth of international marketing experience and a passion for creating innovative consumer products, the award was both a welcome recognition of the work done by her Del Monte team members and a new milestone in a remarkable personal and professional journey across several continents and industries.

Born in Bourges, a small city in central France, Mabilat’s father Daniel was a maintenance worker at a military equipment plant.

“My dad got me interested in travel,” said Mabilat, who enjoyed economics and sport climbing in school. “Every year we visited a new country.”

Global experience

After studying marketing and international trade at a business school in Paris, Mabilat did several months-long internships at home and abroad. After finishing an MBA in Paris, Mabilat landed her first full-time job in 2005 as an innovation project manager with French cosmetics packaging manufacturer Albea.

“It was a consumer-centric role that focused on the development of innovative packaging to address the challenges women face when using makeup,” said Mabilat.

Three years later, Mabilat joined Decathalon, the world’s largest sporting goods retailer, as product manager, woman footwear.

“I wanted to get more experience in brand and portfolio management,” said Mabilat.

Over the next five years she honed her skills building the women’s range for Newfeel, a brand of urban walking shoes.

“We really focused on end users to identify functional needs and consumer insights,” said Mabilat. “We observed and interviewed users from Beijing to Madrid and San Francisco,” said Mabilat.

The team also worked with designers and engineers to find the right balance between maximum sport shoe comfort and style.

In 2013, Mabilat transferred to Decathalon’s office in Singapore to join her husband Guillaume, who was working there.

A year later she joined Unilever’s global skin care brand Pond’s operations in Singapore as global brand manager merchandising and packaging.

In 2016, the couple moved to Palmdale, Calif. There, Mabilat started an online floral design shop from home while parenting two young children. She closed the business in 2020 when the couple moved to Montreal for Guillaume’s work. After a brief stint as e-commerce manager with apparel maker Lamour, Mabilat was hired as Del Monte brand manager in 2021.

“At first I was hesitant because it involved processed foods,” she said. “But then I saw it as a chance to have a positive impact by helping to create more nutritional products.”

In addition to the new fruit chunks in puree product, Mabilat said Del Monte has removed all artificial flavours from its products in Canada since her arrival.

“I love what I do,” she said. “And I love Montreal. It’s been an easy transition for us because we’re French. But it’s also an amazing place to raise a family.” 

This article was originally published in the April/May 2024 issue of Food in Canada.