Few people can say they have a family tree as ambitious as Léonard Forestier’s. In fact, the CEO of Petit Forestier Group and EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ 2025 France winner can trace his entrepreneurial roots back more than 100 years.
His great-grandfather Zéphirin was raised on a cattle farm and moved to Paris in 1907 to start a livestock transport company. In the 1950s, his grandfather Jean expanded the business by introducing refrigerated trucks, a major innovation in the post–World War II era. Later, his father, Jean-Claude, and uncle Yves recognized the potential in vehicle leasing and transitioned the company into refrigerated truck leasing.
Léonard is the fourth generation at the helm Petit Forestier Group, which rents and leases refrigerated vehicles, display units and containers transporting and storing temperature-sensitive goods.
— Léonard Forestier share
Since becoming CEO in 2020, Léonard Forestier has revitalized the company’s management and family shareholding, solidifying its status as Europe’s leader in refrigerated vehicle leasing and rental. Under his strategic leadership revenues have surged. The company now operates in 24 countries, across four continents, with a workforce of 5,900 people. They manage a fleet of more than 80,000 refrigerated vehicles, 50,000 refrigerated units and 6,000 containers.
And Forestier is not done: He’s already writing the next innovative chapter of the family’s story, steering the company away from diesel toward alternative energy vehicles.
His efforts underscore that in a family business, every generation must adapt to the demands of its time, honoring the roots while ensuring the company flourishes in a new era.
Learning before leading
While Forestier grew up around the Petit Forestier Group, he wasn’t always sure joining the family business was for him.
After earning a degree from École Polytechnique, he decided to forge out on his own, first working in infrastructure project financing before transitioning to portfolio management, where he led French public investment funds. But Petit Forestier was always in the back of his mind.
“I wanted to bring something new to the family business, to return with my own convictions about strategy,” he says of that time, sharing that he was particularly interested in gaining more international experience.
By 2011, he realized that if he wanted time to learn from his father and uncle on the job while they were still working, he needed to act sooner rather than later. Forestier joined the team as managing director.
“It was a big decision because I knew once I joined, it would be for the long term,” he says. “I’ve met many people in other family businesses, and it’s always both a choice and a responsibility to continue the family’s entrepreneurial legacy.”
His tenure since that time includes weathering the perils of the COVID-19 pandemic as he transitioned to CEO, and a concerted push to think outside of Europe. They first expanded to the Middle East and Africa, then to the United States, and most recently made an acquisition in Australia.
Prioritizing people
With their global expansion has come an influx of employees, nearly 6,000 across 300 locations, which means Forestier’s focus on strategic onboarding is vital to maintaining their family-run culture.
“I recently spoke with someone who joined six months ago and told me it was the best onboarding experience of their career. They felt truly welcomed,” he says. “Being a family company helps; people see my name on the company, and it personalizes our culture. But it’s something we continuously work on, especially as we grow.”
That personal touch extends to their customers, something Forestier partially credits to the fact that they are the only leasing company specializing in refrigerated assets (their competitors are more generalists). Covering the entire cold chain internally — from the design and assembly of refrigerated boxes on vehicles to the rental of products and services, maintenance and leasing — allows them to be a true one-stop shop.
“We offer the right assets tailored to our customers’ needs. Our business organization is built around those needs, especially for food distribution companies. Our service hours, for example, are aligned with their operations,” he says. “That 360-degree approach is a major differentiator.”
— Léonard Forestier share
And because their work is deeply embedded in their customers’ day-to-day operations, Forestier still spends a lot of time with customers, both new and tenured.
“That’s something I really enjoy — understanding their business and finding ways we can help,” he says. “We have the opportunity to solve real problems and make a difference in their operations, and I find that extremely rewarding.”
Keeping their business fresh
Like his family before him, Forestier knows that staying relevant means staying ahead.
“The principles I follow come down to staying true to the family values and the company’s DNA while adapting to change and anticipating the future,” he says. “Leadership starts with clarity of purpose and having a long-term vision.”
This is especially true when it comes to sustainability and technology.
In 2024, Petit Forestier began redesigning its refrigeration units to achieve energy savings of 60–80%. These units are sealed and equipped with sustainable refrigerants, aligning with the company’s commitment to reducing its environmental impact.
Petit Forestier Group is also accelerating its energy transition with a bold plan to switch 40% of its fleet to electric vehicles by 2030. They’ve partnered with IVECO to introduce the eDAILY, an electric version of their flagship vehicle, which can go 400 km on a single charge and carry loads comparable to diesel models. By 2026, the fleet will expand to 2,000 eDAILY units across Europe, including the United Kingdom and Switzerland.
But Forestier isn’t just focused on innovative equipment. The company has invested heavily in upskilling employees, training more than 140 people in EV maintenance and customer support since 2022. And through partnerships with platforms like Samsara, Petit Forestier Group uses real-time data to provide customers with tools to monitor energy usage and carbon emissions, aiding their sustainability efforts. Forestier sees this as key to helping clients navigate their energy transitions.
His vision for Petit Forestier is to both enhance quality of life and to inspire future generations, including his three sons, to embrace sustainability and innovation.
And while he is not one to typically give advice, he offers up this food for thought for his fellow entrepreneurs, from the first generation to the fourth:
“Find alignment between who you are and the project or business you are pursuing,” he says. “That sense of alignment is essential — for motivation, for vision and for making an impact that lasts.”
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