As a key player in the seminar market, Châteauform' has launched a dedicated offer for corporate offices. How is your Inside offering developing?
Anne Griffon - Châteauform' Inside was launched in its new version a year and a half ago. Before that, it was a natural emanation Châteauform''s core business of running venues dedicated to corporate events. The first milestone was the management of a seminar venue on the Les Dunes campus in Paris. Société Généralein Val-de-Fontenay. Then there was another meeting space in the Métropolitan office building in Paris. But when it came down to it, we didn't stray very far from our core expertise. Then came Covid, and in the wake of the pandemic, a number of fundamental trends began to emerge. Teleworking, a certain disenchantment with the office. And, as a result, the need for companies to recreate the bond between their employees that had been severely eroded. For 30 years at Châteauform', we've been concerned with creating a link at a specific moment - a seminar, a corporate event - with our own particular touch. Hence the idea of creating this link in a more permanent way, every day, by taking our know-how and applying it to offices and corporate universities.
More specifically, what does Châteauform' Inside involve?
Anne Griffon - It's a seamless package combining concierge services, meeting space management, catering provided by our teams - either with an on-site chef or in the production laboratory of our caterer Nomad - and full building management. In addition to this, we can also co-construct third places with the owner and partners, whether around coworking, sport, well-being or soft mobility. All of this can be orchestrated by a facility management offer, to manage the various service providers present in the building. The idea is that onlya single captain on board to deliver impeccable service.
What's your recipe for making employees want to come back to the office?
Anne Griffon - You can write all the great strategies, all the great theories on this subject. But one thing is clear, and it's even truer in France: if you have quality catering, employees come back. It's as simple as this. For example, at Célio's head office we offer a range of products from breakfast to afternoon tea. A real success. For example, employees arrive earlier in the morning, which creates a real opportunity for discussion, with some even staying on to work together in the morning. At lunch, there are big tables where people enjoy taking their time, sharing and discussing projects. Previously, according to management, only 15% to 20 % of people came to the restaurant, then went back to their offices once they'd eaten. Let's not forget that Célio was going bankrupt during Covid. They really needed to get back on their feet by rewriting their strategy. And this strategy, without the collective, cannot work. These moments of sharing around the catering are extremely important for bringing the teams back together.
Apart from catering, what other ways do you run these venues?
Anne Griffon - Of course, there's more to it than that. We can work with the company's general management on a made-to-measure programme of events, for example on the issue of the year or speeches on CSR, economic or personal development topics... But we can also organise lighter things like a fair, a summer party. It's all about making people want to be there and creating links. These moments of conviviality are clearly Châteauform' deported to the offices. As we all know, problems are more likely to be solved over a drink than around an office table.
As one of the customers to have adopted Châteauform' Inside, you have announced the forthcoming opening of five new locations in Paris. Is this offer now on track?
Anne Griffon - Since the summer, things have been speeding up, with new references in commercial buildings, whereas we were more focused on corporate universities. This is good news. Among the five new addresses in Paris, we have just officially inaugurated a space in the L'Oréal's historic headquartersIn addition to the Châteauform' Inside range, we also have the Visionnaire - Espace François Dalle, on rue Royale (editor's note: the Visionnaire - Espace François Dalle covers more than 4,000 m² and has a total of 20 seminar rooms, as well as a restaurant run by Châteauform' chef Olfa Labidi, who has worked in the kitchens of Pierre Gagnaire and Guy Martin). Other clients for Châteauform' Inside include the SNCF, with its SNCF Réseau training campus in Saint Priest, near Lyon, and HEC. The school saw that we could be 'game changers' by bringing a different experience to the château, which houses participants in the executive programmes, which are quite expensive courses. This venue has recently been renovated and refurbished to make it more attractive, including a Châteauform' chef. Our customers see the value of using our expertise.
However, you also have a major project in terms of corporate universities: Deloitte University EMEA. How far have you got with this?
Anne Griffon - We've been working on it for five years. When Deloitte chose us for this facility, which will host training programmes for all their employees in the EMEA region, they hadn't even selected the builder, as Nexity was eventually chosen. This corporate university is due to open by the end of the year with a 300-room jumbo jet100 % dedicated to Deloitte, which will be run by around a hundred Châteauform' employees. As part of our projects, we have to be extremely vigilant, and that's what we learned from managing Pernod Ricard's corporate university at the Domaine de La Voisine. When we arrive at our customers' sites, we have to be able to bring our 'added warmth', but above all to highlight the culture that our customer wants to convey.
With a large number of office buildings looking for tenants, and companies looking to make their workplaces more attractive, are the prospects for developing your offering positive?
Anne Griffon - A number of developers find themselves with empty offices - four years' worth of stock, for example, in the area above Nanterre. The attractiveness of these buildings is therefore a real issue, and "servicing" them can help attract tenants. On the other hand, in very attractive areas, being able to offer a building with many services helps to justify high prices per square metre. Quite apart from this issue relating to developers, the concern of occupying companies is not only to get their staff to return to the office, but also to ensure that they have the best possible working environment.attract new ones. In the past, certain professions such as IT were in short supply. Today, this is the case for most service professions. Hence the a war for talent that we didn't see coming. This too is a real issue of attractiveness, and one that can't be resolved by putting a table football table in the office to play with between lunch and dinner. Within companies, many employees are expressing their desire to return to the office, but not to find themselves alone on huge boards. There is a real need to organise collective time to ensure that the time spent in the office is quality time. These are all things that open up opportunities for us.
The rise of teleworking has fuelled the need for companies to meet in your seminar centres. Is this still the case?
Anne Griffon - Post Covid, people had an absolute need to get together. Even though we were closed for the first few months, 2022 was a record year for Châteauform'. Companies didn't come to work so much as to spend time together, it was very festive. 2023 is a different year. It's still festive, but we're more into the idea of recreating the collective, new strategiesIt's a kind of second wind. At the same time, we're also seeing the impact of teleworking, with a lot more requests during very specific periods. Before, we had very strong periods - May, June, September, the end-of-year festivities - but we managed to have a fairly spread-out business. Now we realise that everyone wants to come at the same times of the week. It's quite complicated to anticipate. A new way of consuming seminars and events is emerging. Will it last? I'm not sure. In any case, something is definitely changing.
