“After Neuilly-sur-Marne and Avignon, we are aiming to open six other washing centers in France”
A year after Neuilly-sur-Marne, have you just opened a washing center in Avignon?
Indeed we have just inaugurated this center in the MIN of Avignon. Equipped with a spray washing tunnel with low water, energy and detergent consumption [un tunnel par immersion pour les bouteilles interviendra dans un deuxième temps, ndlr], it can wash 35 million units per year. This center is mainly dedicated to school catering, since our two main local customers are the city’s central kitchen – we are located 50 meters away – and Terres de Cuisine. Our development in this collective school catering is going faster than we thought in relation to January 1, 2025… Firstly, because local authorities want to get involved in the movement, whether they choose internalized or externalized solutions. Then because large private players are beginning to take the transition seriously; we are also going to start experiments with one of them.
What about your first center, in Neuilly-sur-Marne?
Dedicated to washing lunch break containers, this center operates according to three scenarios, i.e. recurring operations such as what we do with Daily Pic, Rest’Inov, etc. ; or industrial pilots, as at Class’Croûte, with the implementation of deposit and washing (internalized or externalized) in two establishments before a possible deployment in the 140 points of sale of the brand; or experiments with a beginning and an end.
We are working on this with the big players in fast food. In 90% of cases, they will equip themselves with a dive; we will respond to the 10% who don’t have one, either because they don’t have the space, or because they prepare the dishes in a central kitchen.
But this center is far from being at full capacity; it works with a team, it should rotate with two to be commendable. It should break even after two years of operation. Like the one in Avignon.
And reuse in home delivery?
We are ready but the law came very quickly -January 1, 2022-, the actors are in the process of setting themselves up. We are in a test and experimentation phase, on a small scale. The objective is to offer reusable packaging solutions that are applicable, washable, light also for the delivery person, easy to open and use for the consumer: glass has weight limits, microwaveable stainless steel is very expensive… there is therefore development to be done. We are not taking part in the debate, but for us, the ideal of reuse for home delivery is a reusable heat-sealable thermoplastic tray. It is necessary that plastics engineers look for: the materials may not be 50 rotations, but if they do 3 to 5, it is already a significant improvement.
Another obstacle to reuse is the price, right?
We have to see how to share the burden with the public authorities – they must help with the transition, including by charging for single use – or else accept a certain inflation. If the industrialization of reuse costs at the start, it makes it possible to be competitive after 3 to 5 years, as we have demonstrated by several studies. In fact, the prices of the reusable will decrease, while those of the single use will increase; it is impossible to say when the curves will intersect, but the difference is already less important than last year… Let’s take the example of microwaveable stainless steel, it is overpriced because there was no market so far – it is only sold by a single producer in the world –; if French producers identify the opportunity to generate, they will in turn develop it.
Do you see a material favored by the market?
Our job is to help our customers make the right choices, which is why we hired a packaging engineer. In fact, it all depends on the constraints: should it be transported, heated, etc.? This one is super qualitative, easy to wash, does not produce any toxic substance; the downside is its weight – even if it has been reduced, for example in the So urban range from Arc – breakage, breakage and its frequent ban in establishments, starting with the leader McDonald’s. Steel is very expensive, which is why we rarely recommend it, but the more it is in demand, the lower its prices will go. And it’s probably the right solution for the multi-portion. As for plastics, multiple possibilities of reuse have existed for a long time. We are in several European working groups to develop new reusable trays or bowls. They can be made of polypropylene, a material which is not expensive, resists well to heating but is porous; we look under what conditions to add properties to this PP tray to make it reusable. Another axis of development, copolyesters; they are not new, remain quite expensive like Tritan or San, even PET… The latter is not heat resistant, so cannot be washed. The reusable tomorrow will probably go through a mix of all that.
You carried out a fundraising of 4 M€ in January, did it help you for Avignon?
No, this washing center was already funded; its investment amounts to €1 million, partly for the construction of the site and the washing lines, partly for the ramp-up, that is to say the industrial start-up phase since, as I I explained previously, the center will not be at saturation for months, and it is still necessary to finance its operation. It’s cumbersome, but the more we advance, the more we are convinced of the relevance of this pooling model. In Avignon, the center is located 50 meters from the central kitchen of the city, in the MIN, it is relevant to establish ourselves in the logistics node of the supply of the territory.
What are you then going to do with fundraising?
To do two things, first strengthen our teams to allow the company to develop – we are on a base of 35 FTE people and would like to recruit ten people in the relatively short term – then finance other centers… Not the all of the 8 that we have planned for 2023, but the first 3, to consolidate the model before deploying the infrastructure which should make it possible to process 300 M units annually (for a turnover of 40 M€ by at 5). So we will probably organize another fundraising appeal.
Where would you like to locate the new centers?
We have priorities in the Grand Est, in Alsace (especially for bottles), very strong demand in the West, on the one hand on a Nantes Angers Rennes triangle, on the other on a Bordeaux Toulouse axis, but also in Lyon/Rhône Alpes or around Lille. We have two different logics: for catering (i.e. 90% of Uzaje’s activity to date), we need less large centers than close ones, because we are in tight flow; for the agri-food industry (10%, because we are at the start), it is necessary on the contrary to be able to manage enormous volumes.
To support your development, do you have recruitment problems?
Recruitment pressures are pushing for shared solutions like ours. With more than 20 people recruited in 2021, things went pretty well… It must be said that the impact company is attractive.
What has been the impact of Covid?
It slowed us down in our development with the brakes of the lunch break; it has weakened certain actors, who therefore have fewer resources… And at the same time, it is a moment of general awareness of the crucial nature of these packaging issues.
Proposed in February 2022