In the refrigerated lockers installed at the exit of Oullins station towards Lyon, everyone can buy farm products in a few minutes.

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Violet Crate

  • Cagette Violette, presented as a drive for local products, was created in 2019 in a rural area by a former Amazon, Céline Sebrecht.

  • The start-up, which has recorded strong growth in its activity since the first confinement, recently installed its first refrigerated lockers filled with local products for city dwellers.

  • After the Oullins station, other locations are planned in town in 2021, near stations or metro exits, to facilitate access to products from Rhône producers.

Its concept, imagined and implemented before the health crisis, took a real turn during the first confinement.

So much so that for Céline Sebrecht, co-founder of Cagette Violette, 2020 will remain a landmark year in more than one way.

This young woman, installed in the vicinity of Villefranche-sur-Saône, near Lyon, has just installed, in connection with the SNCF, around twenty refrigerated lockers filled with local products at the exit of the multimodal station of Oullins La Saulaie, very close to Lyon.

But before getting there and seeing new perspectives, this mother of a family has spared no efforts to make her place among producers in the region.

This engineer by training, a former Amazon, arrived from Paris with her family three years ago to develop a concept combining digital and better eating.

“Amazon, everyone says it's horrible but everyone buys from them.

I was convinced that there was something to do with my experience and my desire to simplify access to short circuits ”, underlines Céline Sebrecht.

When he arrived in the Lyon region, his idea took shape, his concept took shape.

She decides to contact the producers' stores, numerous in the region, to help them find new customers, by offering different access to short circuits: the drive.

The first saw the light of day in 2019 at the Ronde paysanne de Bessenay, followed by five others opened in the Rhône in producers' stores.

In connection with 300 producers

"At the start of 2020, confinement was a huge opportunity for us," says the young woman.

When the health crisis begins in France, Cagette Violette works but development is not fast enough to offer lasting prospects to society.

“We made fifteen orders per week in the drives.

By taking 10% on sales, that's not how we were going to succeed in paying, ”adds the young woman, surrounded by two associates.

The enthusiasm displayed by the public for local products from the start of the epidemic is a game-changer.

And the development prospects of the start-up.

“The producers saw that with the drive, we offered them a real service in this context,” underlines the entrepreneur, now surrounded by 300 farmers and projects in her head.

After winning the SNCF call for tenders to launch its first urban lockers in Oullins, Cagette Violette is planning eight new locations in the city in 2021. “For this to work, this service must be provided to city dwellers on their journey daily, ”adds Céline Sebrecht.

The start-up is in discussions with Sytral for the installation of lockers at the metro exit in Vaulx-en-Velin, Gorge de Loup or Gare de Vaise.

It is also in contact with the metropolis to obtain authorization to set up its vegetable, fruit, meat, creamery or grocery racks on public roads and plans to develop further in the countryside, with the opening of twenty drives of more in the producers' halls.

“We are also going to create our own place, with our drive, in the west of Lyon.

It is a strategic location because there are no offers from producers in this area and people could easily stop to collect their shopping with the M6 ​​(former A6), ”hopes the 40-year-old.

The Lyon start-up @CagetteV invests the #gare d'Oullins in @auvergnerhalpes to offer its users


25 refrigerated lockers with 100% local products 🤩 A # 1001Gares project 👍 You have a project?

We have m2 👉https: //t.co/mVkTRwh4zR pic.twitter.com/S4TiaUUxMv

- SNCF Gares & Connexions (@ConnectGares) January 8, 2021

Orders to be made on the net or by going to the lockers

For consumers, the device is simple.

Orders can be placed on the Cagette violette site before picking up your drive in the producers' halls or in the lockers of Oullins.

But it is also possible to buy baskets directly from the farm in the lockers at La Saulaie station.

"We will soon have 500 references available", assures the young woman, who has in particular imagined complete menus to cook for 4 people (24.90 euros) or even 5 kg of seasonal fruits and vegetables, sold for 13.90 euros.

A concept which, if it continues to prove its worth in the Rhône, should be offered from 2022 in Ile de France and in 2023 in the west, in Bordeaux or Nantes, where the attraction for "local food" is not denied. not.

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