Jacques Stern, Global CEO of French prepaid service voucher company Edenred, is thrilled with the growing number of red balls that is plastered on the walls of some of India’s leading restaurants and merchandise stores. “They are our biggest advertisement,” Stern says, with a big smile.
The red ball that Stern is referring to occupies a pride of place in Edenred’s brand logo. The company, which among other things, issues meal vouchers & cards and gift vouchers under the Ticket brand name, has stepped up its presence in India, which is evident from the fact that the India operations now account for 40 per cent of the company’s overall revenue in Asia-Pacific.
Ticket has 3,500 corporate customers with over two million service beneficiaries in India. Its network of over 18,000 affiliated outlets is spread across 200 cities. Globally, Edenred, with a turnover of 13 billion Euros, services 33 million people every day and competes mainly with Sodexo SA’s motivation solutions business. Stern says Edenred is the number one player in the world with 35 per cent market share against Sodexo’s 22 per cent. Local players make up for the rest.
The Ticket meal vouchers were introduced in France in 1962 and in Brazil, Italy, Belgium, Germany and Spain beginning in the 1970s. “Brazil is our biggest market where we are as well known as McDonald’s,” Stern says. While that is still a wishful thinking as far as India is concerned, Ticket vouchers are gaining traction in the country.
Because Edenred’s products enable users to have lunch, buy gifts, pay for childcare services, manage business expenses or take a vacation, the new brand has chosen a baseline that puts the emphasis on day to day well being and simplicity, ‘For an easier life’.
Ticket vouchers in India are of two kinds: restaurant meal vouchers and cards, under which companies issue these to employees as a social benefit; and gift vouchers which can be redeemed at over 9,000 outlets in over 175 cities, with a validity of up to two years.
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Edenred’s India MD & CEO Sandeep Banerjee says he plans to bring Ticket childcare vouchers to India shortly as the number of double-income couple is increasing exponentially.and there would be a massive demand for such facilities. Banerjee sees the CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) to improve to 25 per cent going forward from 20 per cent now.
We will focus on strong organic growth, potential partnerships and strategic alliances, diversified delivery platforms, service quality and innovating through new products and services,” Banerjee says.
Ticket vouchers, which contribute 65 per cent to the company’s India revenue, will grow as there is a huge opportunity to be tapped in the small and mid-sized company space as a employee retention tool. To increase usage, Ticket is growing big in the digital space with offerings like online redemptions of gift vouchers.
Ticket is now trying to get bigger in the public social programme space as well in India. Edenred is part of a consortium which recently won a contract for implementing one of the country’s largest food-coupon programmes in Madhya Pradesh. Talks are on with other state governments on this initiative. Ticket coupons are redeemed by the company from the fair price shops to verify that food has reached the target group. The fee generated per ration card is the revenue stream for the company. The vouchers for PDS are colour-coded for wheat, rice, sugar and kerosene.
Education is also a focus area. The company, which works with local governments in Chile, Italy and Mexico in managing their education programmes through Ticket vouchers, has partnered with the Centre for Civil Society in running a “school choice” education voucher pilot in Delhi. Select girl children from the minority community avail quality education at a school of their choice through the Ticket education vouchers. This, Banerjee says, is an important initiative taken that can dovetail into a larger execution programme with the Right to Education Act (RTE) now in place.
Under this scheme, Edenred has issued biometric cards to girls between the age of 6-14 years to apply in any of the 1000 schools (private or public) in Delhi for primary education. Post admission, the card would be redeemed by the company. After that, the government would take care of school fees. Edenred would get a transaction fee per beneficiary. This project ran under the government’s Right to Education Act (RTE).
“This programme is more about the scale than margins and we will continue to bid for such projects. In fact, we feel that majority of our revenues might come from this business in the next three years,” says Banerjee.
The company now wants to enter tier 2 and 3 towns and the public social programmes will make the presence wider.