2023-09-27 15:59:40
The shopping and home meal delivery platform Frichti has just been taken over by a French competitor, La Belle Vie, which has committed to maintaining 168 of the approximately 400 employees, while independent delivery drivers are “ panicked » by the sudden termination of their service contract by the former managers.
« We are keeping the cuisine and the quality of Frichti’s products which have made it successful, but we are changing the delivery model: we do not have darkstores but a single large warehouse “, declared the co-founder of La Belle Vie, Alban Wienkoop, to AFP.
So, ” delivery drivers will go on bigger runs with more products rather than going back and forth from different locations “, he clarified.
La Belle Vie, located in Ile-de-France, relies on its 1,300 m² kitchen laboratory in Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis) and its 4,700 m² Parisian warehouse. compliant with the PLU (local urban plan, Editor’s note)”, we can read in the takeover offer that AFP consulted.
Wave of departures
Last March, very restrictive regulations brought a blow to players specializing in “quick commerce”. The government had decreed that “dark stores” – these premises where products to be delivered are stored – were warehouses and not businesses, opening the way to regulation by town halls of this activity, and even to the closure of certain sites. .
The German Flink and the Turkish Getir (Gorillas, Getir and Frichti) then announced that they were leaving the French market. Frichti, Gorillas and Getir were placed in receivership before the Paris commercial court in March and the last two entities were subsequently liquidated.
La Belle Vie, created in 2015 by Paul Lê and Alban Wienkoop and which today employs 376 employees, has just signed two contracts with the Grande Epicerie de Paris (LVMH group) and intends to expand the Frichti catalog, which would increase from 1,000 products available at 6,000.
Île-de-France employees preserved
The buyers acquired Frichti for 30,000 euros and set aside 450,000 euros to take over the stocks, and retain 14 of Frichti’s 18 company restaurants. More than 160 employees will keep their jobs in Île-de-France but employees in Lille, Nantes, Bordeaux, Lyon, Aix-en-Provence, Grenoble and Toulouse risk being made redundant.
In 2022, Frichti’s turnover amounted to 69 million euros while that of La Belle Vie reached 42 million euros and, at the end of June 2023, 28 million euros, an increase of 30%. compared to the previous year.
A new entity was created by the buyers, New Frichti, which allows them not to inherit the heavy liabilities of the company, and some “ 200 ongoing trials » currently at the industrial tribunal, told AFP Kevin Mention, lawyer for independent delivery drivers who took legal action to request a reclassification of their employment contract. The latter have “ managers, tours, sanctions ”, like traditional employees: “ It’s hidden work », Estimates the council.
“Shocked” delivery men
After a message from Frichti’s former leaders announcing that their collaboration would end on September 25, several told AFP that they were ” panicked » et « shocked » and began a strike on September 19.
The same day, employees of Getir and Gorillas demonstrated in front of the office in charge of the liquidation, complaining in particular about still not having their Pôle Emploi certificates, according to a press release.
Around ten employees were still waiting for their salaries at the start of the week, Getir France employee representative Johann Tchissambou told AFP.
The company Flink SE and Guillaume Luscan, co-founder of Cajoo, had also submitted a takeover offer and intended to take over 55 Frichti employees, according to the document consulted by AFP.
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