Sodexho relies on Wedoogift to ensure the dematerialization of its restaurant vouchers

Sodexo has announced the acquisition of Wedoogift, a French start-up specializing in paperless access to employee benefits (gift vouchers, culture, restaurants and other ticketing services). The acquisition will help Sodexo make the digital transition of its business.

THE FACTS

• The Sodexo Pass France subsidiary has acquired a 56% majority stake in the Wedoogift start-up involving the TirGroupé brand, creator of the Sodexo Group's gift certificates.

• This strategic decision will enable Sodexo to acquire Wedoogift's technological resources, in particular its SaaS software and dematerialization solutions.

• The new partnership will initially cover the management of paper vouchers and cards, as well as the paperless version of the service.

• The group is looking to make its approach more digital and is already offering digital management of media.

• Wedoogift promotes transparent remote management of gift certificates, with real-time monitoring of consumption.

CHALLENGES

• Simplify the management of vouchers: The dematerialization of restaurant or gift vouchers is primarily aimed at saving time and reducing costs (storage, distribution and delivery). It also represents a commitment to respond to new uses, reinforced by the health context.

• Strengthening its position: The Sodexo Group and Wedoogift represent nearly 50,000 clients and 5 million beneficiaries. With this new acquisition, Sodexo has become the leader in gift vouchers in France, while Edenred still dominates the restaurant voucher market.

• Completing its transition: Sodexo has been committed to the dematerialization of meal vouchers for many months now. In November 2020, the foodservice giant announced the deployment of its SodexoPay service to dematerialize its restaurant card. The partnership with Wedoogift is part of this smooth transition strategy, enabling Sodexo to abandon the card medium in favor of digital media and access to multiservice mobile wallets.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• The trend toward dematerialization concerns all players in the restaurant voucher market; Edenred, for its part, plans to stop issuing paper vouchers by 2022.

• This transition is all the more important as the meal voucher market has become competitive. Until now, Sodexo, Edenred, Up and Natixis Intertitres have largely dominated the market. But the four players were eventually fined nearly 400 million euros in 2019 by the French Competition Authority. Yet since then, players like Swile or Just Eat have moved in to disrupt the market.

KEY FIGURES

Wedoogift

• 2014: creation
• 2016: profitability
• 250 million euros processed
• 11 million in sales by 2020
• More than 1.4 million beneficiaries from 7,000 client companies
• 180 employees

Sodexo

• 55,000 clients (companies, CSEs and public entities)

TirGroupé, Sodexo's brand for gift vouchers

• 40,000 clients
• 3.5 million employees covered by its services
• More than 90,000 accepting points of sale