Benoit Richard

Benoit Richard is at the origin of the whole adventure. In 2011, this young entrepreneur from the Lozère, then aged 33, launched from Marvejols a small sales and consulting business in photovoltaic equipment. The initial insight was simple but stubborn: energy would decentralize, become portable, and the public would need reliable landmarks to find its way. It is that conviction which, year after year, turned a niche activity into the company Harmonia and its Best Batteries website.

In 2015, he made a decision that would give the project its identity: no longer just selling, but testing and putting equipment through its paces before recommending it. This shift towards reviews and real-world trials, driven by a team of enthusiasts he managed to keep on board (the core has not changed since 2017), stems directly from his personal standards. His guiding principle, which he happily repeats internally: better to give up a sale than to recommend a mediocre product.

A manager more than a tester, Benoit does not write articles or rate products: his role lies elsewhere, in the vision, the choice of partners and the company culture. He holds to two values that run through the whole site: ethics (a genuinely impartial selection, never dictated by margin) and ecology (favoring the durable, the repairable, the frugal). He is also the one who drove the site's European expansion, now available in five languages, and the launch of its portable-cooling spin-off, Au Frais.

Still deeply attached to his native Lozère, Benoit still runs the company from the Gévaudan, between the 600 m² warehouse and the wide-open spaces around it. Married and a father of two, he unwinds on the region's rugby pitches, a sport whose values of team spirit and commitment he likes to find again in his company. A fine wine lover, he happily takes the passion all the way to wine tasting, convinced that a good bottle, like a good product, is judged by tasting and not by the label.