Sodexho Plans To Launch Daily Cash Cards

The days of using currency may soon with over, with Sodexho India planning to introduce daily cash cards that can transact business for as little as a rupee.

Besides, companies can now look at outsourcing all their non-core activities ranging from housekeeping to organising seminars from Sodexho.

The largest player in the Rs 150 crore food and gifts vouchers market in India, Sodexho India is launching its facilities and management services, and loyalty programmes in Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi, the company's chief executive officer Ravi Saxena said.

"A $75 billion market worldwide, the facilities market is still in its nascent stages in India. Sodexho has adopted the self-management model in this segment, unlike others who sub-contract the services to local vendors," Saxena said.

The Indian food and gift voucher market is estimated at $4 billion per annum, of which less than 1 per cent has been tapped so far. "This new initiative will allow companies to outsourcing their building, business and people requirements from us," he said.

To tap the loyalty programmes market, the company has tied up with the State Bank of India to provide Gold Cards to its 45 million customers.

"This card works like a ATM card that customers can use to load money on from their ATM and use at stores or petrol bunks," Saxena explained.

Extending this initiative, Sodexho will introduce daily cash card which can transact business for as little as a rupee. "Unlike credit cards, which are for the higher segments, this card will be used by everyone, even to do their groceries shopping," Saxena said. For this, Sodexho will provide all the 12,000 shops it currently deals with, with the smart card readers.

A fully owned subsidiary of the $12 billion French multinational Sodexho Alliance, the Indian company will add 500 employees this year, taking its total strength to 1,000, he said.

As part of the company's expansion plans, India has been shortlisted, with Russia and China, as a strategic market. "Though the Indian market accounts for about 1 per cent of the company's turnover, it has been identified as a strategic market, keeping in mind the population of the country and its employee base," Saxena said.

In the current Rs 150-crore voucher market in India, Sodexho has a market share of 70 per cent. The company expects a growth of 30 per cent to 35 per cent this year, despite the slowdown in corporate spending.

"While the slowdown resulted in a loss of 5000 customers for Sodexho last year, there was also an addition of 45,000 new customers this year. We lost customers because of layoffs, but companies didn't stop our facilities," Saxena said. The current customer base of the company is over 1 lakh.

"Though keeping a focus of IT companies was an attractive proposition, where return on investment is high, we ventured into all markets, and have benefited from it today," he said.

Sodexho also plans to aggressively market its services to public sector undertakings to leverage from their 'socially conscious' image, the company's chief executive officer Ravi Saxena said.

"These are giants with a large workforce and cannot be ignored. Privatisation has not changed the management of these companies, and they have taken their time to understand the new system. While the gestation period is long, the benefits will be huge in the long run," Saxena said.