« In twenty years at the head of the TFC, I have learned a lot, and in particular how to manage pressure. » During the long streak, completed two years ago, during which he was at the head of the emblematic football team of Toulouse, Olivier Sadran, 54, who flees notoriety like the plague, could not avoid to be on the front line. Today, there is no longer any need to sow the paparazzi, he breathes and is totally devoted to his company, Newrest, one of the European leaders in collective catering (1.7 billion euros in turnover). Dressed in a sweater and jeans, he receives guests in his office in an old building on Boulevard Lazare-Carnot, in the city center, which, with its wrought iron balconies and all-green bow windows, inevitably strikes sight of passers-by. Locking up isn’t Sadran’s thing. “After two weeks here, I can’t stand still. I like being on the field.” he explains. And his own terrain is the planet.
Newrest, which he created in Toulouse in 1996, now employs nearly 37,000 people in some sixty countries. The company provides catering for companies, administrations, schools, universities, hospitals… More acrobatically, for mining or oil companies (Vale, Glencore, Total, Shell, Rio Tinto…), it supplies living bases lost in the most remote places of food, sleeping and cleaning services. For Sadran, the extreme of the extreme in this category would be the San Cristobal mine (zinc, lead, silver), the largest in Bolivia, located at an altitude of 4,300 meters in the Andes. “I really like the job of living bases, because it involves forging links with local populations, working together, providing training”, he confides.
Another activity of Newrest, catering on board trains, which requires enormous logistics to maintain the cold chains. Newrest has learned a lot by working with its main client, the SNCF – “a company unjustly criticized” –, before swarming. First in Europe, with the Austrian company ÖBB, known for its night trains crossing the Old Continent. Or in Morocco, where Newrest provides service on board the TGV Casablanca-Tangier. “The SNCF sandwich no longer exists. Today, we take the advice of Thierry Marx, a starred chef,” he specifies.
Establishment in the United States
Still, the big deal, the one that put the company into orbit, remains catering on board aircraft (easyJet, Air France, SAS, Qatar Airways, Etihad, Air China, etc.). Last year, the Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm platforms were reinforced to better serve the Scandinavian company SAS. But the big blow in the catering air happened during the Covid crisis. It was in these exceptional circumstances that Newrest managed to establish itself in the United States. A story that perfectly illustrates the go-getter and voluntary side of Sadran. “From the first day of the Covid alert, we instinctively refused to sit back. We remained present at the headquarters. We supported our teams in our countries, Sadran notes. We made tough decisions for staff, but found elements of solidarity by devoting 30% of executive salaries to employees in Africa and Latin America who did not receive any state aid. »
For the company, the shock was violent, the turnover collapsed by more than a third. Yet it was during this turbulent period that Sadran saw an opening in the United States, where his band was practically absent. “We contacted Delta and United, who were having problems with their onboard meal providers,” he remembers. It functioned. Once the contracts have been concluded with these two companies, which are among the largest companies in the world, Newrest has put on the table 100 million dollars to set up its platforms, one in Atlanta, the largest airport in the world, where the Delta hub; the other in Houston, for the United hub. “In 2019, we had virtually nothing in the United States. Today we have a backlog of $3.5 billion,” he said. Outside of France, the United States has become the group’s largest market. A hell of a shot that owes nothing to luck.
The focus on digital
“Making dishes, cooking, is not the most difficult thing, Sadran explains. But when you have to supply hubs, i.e. 400 to 500 flights a day, you have to know how to deliver thousands of meal trays on time. And there we are no longer in the manual, we are in the data. » In Atlanta and Houston, dishes prepared by Newrest circulate on robotic lines. It’s been twenty-five years since the company focused on digital by creating its proprietary software. “They cover all of our needs, from supplies to invoicing, including health and safety checks, said Sadran. Digital also means monitoring data, from the departure to the return of the aircraft. » The Toulouse head office is therefore not populated by chefs but by computer scientists. The commando operation carried out in the United States is a bit like the summary of the house culture at Newrest.
“It’s hard to explain how we operate. We are atypical. The decision circuits are ultra-short. Internal promotion plays a big role,” note the 50. Five hundred managers, spread across the world, own no less than 33% of the group’s capital. “I don’t have a three-year term, and I’m only accountable to my clients and my manager-shareholders,” observes Sadran. For the latter, things are going pretty well: Newrest is not listed, so the theoretical value of its share is calculated each year: it went from 25 euros in 2005 to 1,030 euros last year. “This participation makes it possible to give a real face of sharing and understanding of capitalism”, assures Sadran, who feels close to the American vision of business. Without denying anything of its origins…
“I am from Toulouse. I love my city “, says Sadran. This is why, requested by the Town Hall in 2001, he agreed to take over the TFC, the football team of Toulouse, then in distress. “I was the owner of the TFC for twenty years, and I managed to never play politics. I got on well with the mayors who succeeded one another. While always telling them what I thought. It’s my nature “, he said. The creation of the Tolosa fund, of which he owns 51%, is his way of participating in the life of his region. You can’t get over it, Sadran is an entrepreneur at heart. His fund takes stakes to help local initiatives in the dark kitchens (Foudie), butchery (Maison Lascours), senior residences (ABC Résidences), landscaping and urban planning (E2V Paysage). This hyperactive, crazy about sport, also takes care of an equestrian center for elite riders in Gauré, a small village located about twenty kilometers from Toulouse, and a golf course in Albi.
Newrest’s management mode is similar to that of a team sport. Olivier Sadran
The sport ? This is a subject on which Sadran, the silent, is inexhaustible. “What is stronger? There is everything in sport, work, self-sacrifice, solidarity, but also failure, getting up, emotion, sharing. enthuses Sadran. He himself practices freeriding on skis, he runs, rides a bike… His biggest regret is not having been able to be a top-level athlete. “It’s the tragedy of my life”, he confides. To motivate his troops, he called on his friend Tony Parker, who impressed his staff in Atlanta and Houston, invited to giant barbecues punctuated by basketball games with the idol of the San Antonio Spurs. At headquarters, Sadran had a gym installed with a permanent coach. For him, “Newrest’s management method is similar to that of a team sport”. And no need to wonder who is the coach, the selector and the captain of the Newrest team. One of his obsessions? “I fight to break down the silos, which are the tragedy of modern companies. Everyone does their own thing and we call consulting companies to arbitrate. At Newrest, consulting companies, there are none. It’s forbidden. They take knowledge from some to bring it to others. he explains.
Shared steering
Paradoxically, this man, all of a piece, shares the direction of the group. He is thus co-chairman, and not chairman, alongside Jonathan Stent-Torriani, 58. An a priori baroque blend between a pure Toulouse man, self-taught who left the family home at 16, and a South African raised in Canada, heir to a family of hoteliers, who went through McGill University in Montreal and the prestigious Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne. Yet, that “match”, between the two men, who share almost half of the capital of Newrest. Partners for a little over fifteen years, they know each other by heart. The secret of this agreement is perhaps due to the fact that Stent-Torriani resides in Geneva. And then, admits Sadran, “Jon is much more flexible than me: he has a very good composition”. Informally, the two men seem to have shared the tasks. Sadran deals more with day-to-day operations, team leadership, recruitment, and Stent-Torriani with targeted missions (marketing, sales, acquisitions, etc.). But nothing prevents one from taking care of what the other is doing, and, underlines Sadran, a formidable negotiator, “what dictates the distribution of roles is efficiency and speed of execution”.
We never chased turnover. What matters to us are our customers and the frequency of renewal of our contracts.Olivier Sadran
The two managers are counting on a third sidekick, discreet but influential. Henri Fiszer, 63, a hard-core financier trained in the United States, is also present in the capital. He plays the wise and gives his advice on the strategy and finances of the group. Decidedly unique, the operating mode of the Newrest company can be disconcerting. Nevertheless, the results are there. Each year, the group shows growth of 10%. He doesn’t have a single euro in debt and has never lost money, even during the Covid crisis. “We never chased turnover, Says Sadran. What matters to us are our customers and the frequency of renewal of our contracts. » However, the group is aiming for a turnover of 2 billion euros by 2026. A big leap… §