This is a consecration for the strategy pursued for years by the Ticket Restaurant issuer. This ex-subsidiary of Accor has been listed on the stock market since 2010. It has just entered the CAC 40. Already a member of the CAC 40 ESG since September 2022, the value had been expected for a while to integrate the stock market’s flagship index. from Paris.
“If that hadn’t happened, life would have gone on,” says Bertrand Dumazy, CEO of Edenred. Joining the CAC 40 is a source of pride for Edenred and its 12,000 employees. It is also a source of pride for France. The restaurant voucher is a French idea, which has irrigated the whole world. Even if we only generate 16% of turnover in France, Edenred is a French success story. Our story is one of international development and successful digitization”.
Even today, Edenred is best known for its Ticket Restaurant. However, the company has expanded its offer to many other services in recent years, to the point that its flagship product now represents only 44% of turnover.
Present in 45 countries, Edenred has focused on three main product lines: employee benefits (Ticket Restaurant, Kadéos gift card, payment of expenses in the context of teleworking, etc.), professional mobility solutions (Ticket Mobility for tolls, fuel, car parks, etc. and intercompany payments. A winning strategy.
Claiming a leadership position in most of its activities, the former Accor Services now has 52 million users, via 1 million corporate clients and 2 million merchants and restaurateurs. Since 2016 (year of arrival of Bertrand Dumazy at the head of the group), the turnover has been multiplied by two, to 2 billion euros. The net result has also doubled, while the market capitalization has increased almost fourfold, to more than 15 billion euros. This is almost as much as Sodexo, which has just cut itself in half, in order to in turn better promote its employee benefits and rewards activity. It is also much more than its former parent company Accor, which is worth 8.6 billion euros on the stock market.
“From a company that issued paper, we have become a digital company, adds Bertrand Dumazy. Edenred has been able to adapt to a changing world. We were pioneers in the arrival of the card and now in mobile payment”.
Edenred’s latest acquisition – the largest in its history – is a perfect illustration of this. For 1.3 billion euros, the group has just acquired the British start-up Reward Gateway, which has developed a service platform for companies that recruit and seek to motivate their teams (reductions on leisure and sports halls, rewards in gift vouchers, psychological assistance, etc.).
By being a member of the CAC 40, Edenred is stepping into the limelight. The start of a new adventure. “Constraint creates talent. We will be keen to do even better,” promises Bertrand Dumazy.
