Elior cuisine in Epone, in the Parisian suburbs.

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Martin BUREAU / AFP

Collective catering is suffering from the consequences of the coronavirus epidemic.

The giant Elior announced on Thursday the elimination of 1,888 jobs in France in its branch dedicated to company catering, undermined by the teleworking of many employees.

This reorganization, which is the subject of a job protection plan presented to the social partners, affects 1,260 catering establishments operated by its subsidiaries Elior Entreprises and Arpège, the group said in a press release.

Elior will try to "offer a reclassification to the employees concerned" towards its other activities in France, and estimates "at more than 1,000 the number of positions potentially available in the coming year", specifies Frédéric Galliath, general manager of the business activity. within Elior France, cited in the press release.

Abrupt collapse and sluggish recovery

"The company will now engage in a process of consultation and discussion with [its] social partners to limit as much as possible the impact of this project on employment," he said.

In total, 9,500 employees today work in company catering in France within Elior Entreprises and Arpège, which is the high-end segment of this activity and counts among its clients a number of large companies having their head office in the La Défense business district, where the number of people working in the office on a daily basis has shrunk.

Elior's corporate catering branch thus saw its activity contract by 45%, compared to last year, due to the health crisis: the period of confinement, when it was almost zero, followed a recovery very soft, told AFP a spokesperson.

A sustainably affected sector

Indeed, company restaurants are now largely deserted due to increased recourse to teleworking, which now represents on average "more than two days a week against less than a day" before the health crisis, among Elior clients.

The current restructuring plan is nevertheless "calibrated on a 20% drop in activity", which is the level on which the group expects after the health crisis, because corporate catering should remain permanently affected by these changes in fashion. work, said the spokesperson.

In addition to these job cuts, Elior "plans to use a long-term partial activity system at the sites", in particular those of large size, he explains.

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