Sodexo expands its range of services

While its competitor, the startup Swile, has just announced a new acquisition, Sodexo is accelerating and counting on three new partnerships to extend its range of services to employees in areas as diverse as mobility, financial management and sports.

FACTS

• Sodexo Pass France, the subsidiary dedicated to customized Quality of Life services for businesses, has formed 3 exclusive commercial partnerships with start-ups that are leaders in their field:

  • Skipr, a Belgian start-up that offers an application to facilitate flexible and sustainable mobility, combining bicycles, car-sharing, electric scooters and public transport;

  • Rosaly, which offers automatic management of advance payment requests, while 40% of French people are overdrawn in the middle of the month due to unforeseen events;

  • Gymlib, the sportech of sports subscriptions without commitment, provides unlimited access to 4,000 facilities and a range of activities, from the most classic to the most unusual, on your own or with colleagues.

• This new offer further expands Sodexo's existing range of products:

  • the Pass Restaurant and Spirit of Cadeau cards,

  • the Tir Groupé gift voucher,

  • the Wedoogift application,

  • the e-CESU,

  • as well as mobility solutions, with a network of 700,000 partner merchants in France.

• Sodexo serves 5 million employees in 50,000 companies, CSEs and government agencies.

CHALLENGES

• Revaluing employee benefits at a time when recruitment and retention are particularly difficult. With the Covid episode, teleworking and the war for talent, the importance of the notion of the employee experience, which is increasingly digital and personalised, has been reinforced, as has that of the employer brand. The expectations of young graduate recruits are not the same as those of older generations, and the diversity of services appears to be a lever for capturing and retaining them.

• Offer an "all-inclusive" service package to attract companies' social organisations, either by developing in-house solutions or in partnership.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• The Group can rely on its broad geographic coverage: Sodexo's global presence allows it to share best practices. For example, Skipr worked with Sodexo in Belgium and then in France, while Gymlib is likely to expand to other European countries, as was the case with Deliveroo and Uber Eats for meal delivery.

• Sodexo has opened discussions with the British fund CVC to sell about a quarter of the capital of its "benefits and rewards" branch (meal vouchers, gifts, etc.) to give itself the means to develop this activity more quickly.

In figures:

• Sodexo is the world's second largest pure player behind Edenred, serving 35 million employees, 470,000 companies and 1.3 million merchant partners in 30 countries

• Edenred serves 50 million users, 900,000 companies and 2 million merchants in 45 countries.