The automatic food distribution sector fears that companies will prohibit access to coffee machines to their employees returned to the office, as a health precaution, which would jeopardize an activity which represents 55,000 jobs in France.
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Ensuring to guarantee " an irreproachable maintenance of automatic distributors ", the National Federation of automatic food distribution (Navsa) estimated Wednesday in a statement that " companies would be wrong to prohibit access to relaxation areas and condemn machines " because " The coffee break contributes to the well-being of employees ".
Dry layoffs to be feared
" Since the confinement, our activity has dropped from 80 to 100% and this week, despite the deconfinement, in Paris, it was sometimes worse: we no longer have orders from our customers ", said AFP Pierre Albrieux , president of the federation. " We are already talking about dry layoffs as soon as state aid ends ."
The federation brings together 247 companies, the managers of 600,000 automatic vending machines in France - 70% installed in companies and 30% in public places, stations, airports, metro, motorway areas ... - but also machine manufacturers or those of food products, and associated service companies (electronic payment, packaging).
" It went very well with companies during the confinement, in particular health establishments, logistics platforms or service stations, we used virucidal products ", reports Pierre Albrieux, whose federation distributed a health protocol applied by distributors' managers.
Distributors stopped in certain sectors
Instructions for the use of the machines will be displayed in the break places: hand washing before and after using the dispenser, distance of at least one meter between each user and single-use cup. But " it was recommended, in the job descriptions published by the Ministry of Labor, to stop distributors: in metallurgy, in garage owners ... ", says Pierre Albrieux, which caused " great confusion " at within companies.
" The national deconfinement plan, it no longer talks about banning distributors, except that the damage was done, " he laments. " There will be no recovery for us: many companies (customers) remain in telework or in degraded mode ", he alarmed, in particular in the headquarters of the business district of Defense west of Paris or in major cities.
Companies in the sector - which posts 2.9 billion euros in annual turnover, thanks to more than 15 million sales per day, 85% of which are hot drinks, and claims 55,000 jobs - want to benefit from public aid reserved for the catering sector.
