Problem
The University of Sciences Po is one of France’s most prestigious institutions with the clear aim to be at the forefront of empowering future generations to solve upcoming problems. In that role it assumes a lot of responsibilities and some are being handled better than others. The academic and intellectual infrastructure is sublime and up to speed, however certain parts of the campus infrastructure are not. The Sciences Po is situated in one of the most expensive areas of Paris, which means that generally speaking all surrounding restaurants and cafés charge handsome sums for basic products. As the everyday life for Sciences Pistes is very challenging in terms of schedules, the only possibility to get something to eat quickly in between classes for affordable prices are Sandwiches. Other student pre-cook meals or try to get one of the rare places at the Crous cafétéria. At the end of day these habits result in unhealthy and expensive food routines that are not beneficial neither for the students nor for the university. Affordable, healthy food is a key challenge in today’s world. This goes for developing countries as well as our western societies, where obesity is becoming a serious health hazard (Orazem, 2013). Nevertheless, it is a topic where students are left to fight for their own here. Though upsides of good nutrition and their positive effects on studying, concentration level and even cognitive development have long been proven (Orazem, 2013). The following letter of intent will therefore propose sustainable and affordable solutions to this dire problem.
Concept Proposition
As mentioned above generally speaking students have three options for nutrition. They pre-cook meals at home and bring them along, they frequent one of the restaurants or bakeries in the neighborhood or they visit the cafeteria or one of the vending machines. The project “Food on Wheels” (short. Fheels) is designed to offer a fourth option. The idea is to place 2-3 food trucks at strategic points around the campus with quick, healthy and affordable assortment that will be discussed hereafter. It will be possible to order food before arriving at the counter via an App Similarly to apps like Deliveroo, UberEats etc to save time and to avoid long queues. There are a number of “green” food trucks with affordable selection like Franck Dujarrier’s food company. Science Po should partner up with these companies and pay them a monthly fee to have the trucks supply affordable healthy food to strict standards. Alternatively, Fheels will work directly with producers, mainly for fruit and vegetables and organic stores for the rest (it is possible to negotiate 20% as a professional client regular).
The key is to offer simple things with little ingredient. Today, a broad consensus among nutritional experts is that an ideal plate consists of:
- 50% vegetables
- 25% starchy foods
- 25% protein
Fheels will offer a complete dish with a starchy base (rice, quinoa, mash), cooked or raw vegetables depending on the season and a source of protein. There will be each daily vegetarian option including for example eggs, lentils, tofu red beans etc. We can consider making small snacks such than vegetable quiches or tortillas. Fheels will also offer orange juice and squeezed apple juice as well than conventional hot drinks (coffee, tea). The challenge here is to attract students and teachers who love good coffee by offering them an alternative to the coffee machine Sciences Po. The origin of coffee beans may vary from month to month. Coffee and tea will be organic. Regarding the desserts, the products will be simple: a fruit salad, cheese white available in several versions (honey, plain, jam) and cakes that can be consumed at any time, easy to take for your next lesson (cookie, brownies, muffins, carrot cake). Students will vote for the theme country they want to have soon. it will create a proximity with these which will maximize the attraction and the loyalty of customers. This will also allow direct feedback from consumers and therefore offer the right offer. Thanks to the financial backing from the university, the innovative choice of menus and delivery, we are certain that it is possible to revolutionise the campus nutritional infrastructure.
ROI Analysis & Expected Positive Impacts
Our project needs several costs, but also needs organization in order to find providers with whom to work and from whom to supply. What are essential for us are:
A truck
I know people who sell trucks fitted out after the abandonment of their professional activity. Then it requires a personal initial investment to do some modification and buy the necessary kitchen facilities. A used food truck costs around 20,000 € to 30,000 € and the cost of a fitted food truck is around € 50,000- € 100,000. It is also necessary obtain authorization from Science Po and the Paris City Hall according to the location of the truck. However, in the medium term, the truck may be located in the middle of the garden in the new Sciences Po campus planned for 2022.
Employees
It would be sufficient to hire two students per department and let them do the preparation before the lunches (paid at hourly minimum wage). We could consider having only one during the mornings and afternoons, quieter periods. Several students will be hired and we’ll make the schedule flexible for the students.
Utensils and dishes
The site https://www.compos-table.fr/ offers many tableware items which are vegetable and biodegradable at affordable prices and in large quantities, including:
- Salad bowl: 78 € for 300 or 0.26cts per unit
- Fork, knife and wooden spoon at 56.2 € per 1000 or 0.05 cts per unit
- Biodegradable disposable coffee cup at € 90 for 2000, ie 0.05 cts per unit
- Transparent bags for quiches, cakes etc. at 0.7 cts per unit
The prices
The prices we have in mind are as follows:
- A dish will cost no more than 10 €. We could be considering establishing a price lower for the vegetarian option (9 €)
- Coffees will be sold 1.7 € and tea 2 €
- Desserts will not exceed 3.5 €
We will offer a menu at 11 or 12 € including main dish and dessert (selection at consider) + drink.
Consumers
According to Sciences Po statistics, 1,904 students were admitted to the Bachelor in 2018 and 2108 were admitted to a master's degree, i.e. around 4,000 new students each year. According to Olivier Guillet, there are 1,211 students in the School of Management and Innovation, of whom 238 are in hyphenation. Sciences Po Paris contains 7 schools, including the doctoral school. Assuming there are around 700 and 1000 students per school, I assume that the Paris Campus gathers around 6000 students each year. Of course, Sciences Po staff and professors are also potential clients, as well as for nearby employees and other schools(Penninghen, Ipag, St Thomas Aquinas High School, School of Fine Arts ...) with which we will communicate.
Estimated revenues & expected positive impacts
Revenues will mainly come from the margin generated per item sold.
150 meals sold per day = € 10 x 150 = €1,500
300 snacks / drinks per day = € 2 x 300 = €600
1.500 € + 600€ = 2.100 €
We assume here that about 100 students a day buy a dish or a menu. 10 € is the average price spent taking into account the reductions of students coming with their own dish. We can imagine selling at least 300 snacks (desserts) or drinks per day (coffees, teas, soda, etc.) with an average price of € 2. We can make at least € 10,500 in weekly sales, i.e. € 42,000 in income per full month (period outside school holidays).
A year at Sciences Po breaks down as follows:
- 24 weeks of lessons (full reference month)
- 2 weeks of remedial work / revisions
- 4 weeks of exams
- 13 weeks of vacation or closed establishment (August, December, January)
- 5 weeks of Summer School in June
The activity will therefore be reduced during the weeks of revision and examinations (2/3 of the turnover a full month will be realized). In June, some masters courses and the Summer School gather around 450 students (2019). We can think that about 1/3 of the turnover of a month full will be realized. Finally, during school holidays, the food-truck will potentially get closed. This strategy is valid for the launch but thanks to a more diversified (workers, other schools), we can open outside of periods Sciences Po vacation rentals according to the number of estimated customers. We estimate it as € 10,500 weekly. It would be very easy to increase the number of items sold given the number of students present every day on the Sciences Po Paris campus (not counting staff and students from other institutions) thanks to a good marketing strategy and communication.
Other positive impacts may arise:
- Push the students for healthy food and organic products, but also with plastic reduction so that they understand that it is actually possible to have a lunch with the least plastic packaging possible
- Push the students to participate into this green project by sharing their online feedbacks and being involved in the development by proposing creative and innovative ideas
- An engagement for a sustainable business model and environment-respective project by having an electric truck, by proposing organic products and by limiting all the packages
- Offering the opportunity for students to consume healthy products for an affordable and accessible price
Risks and action-plan
ID
Risk description
Impact
Priority
Type of response
Response
Status
1
Legislation on the truck’s locations that may imply some difficulties
H
H
Mitigation
Before buying the truck and launching the project, mitigation plan by guaranteeing we have the authorization for a precise location from:
- Sciences Po
- Paris’ town hall
In a long-term run, the truck could be located in the garden of Sciences Po’s new campus.
Monitored
2
Risk that the business is not profitable, and the project fails
H
H
Mitigation
-Reduction of risk: market studies and precise value proposition investigation in order to launch a successful project
-Reduction of impact: the objective is to launch the project by bringing each one of us a limited capital and have fundraising by crowdfunding and start-ups’ shareholders investments. Therefore, raising Equity but avoid bank’s debts
Monitored
3
A business model aiming at Sciences Po’s students, with the risks of losing opportunities with other nearby students/potential interested customers
M
M
Mitigation
The project is focusing on Sciences Po students. However, should the project not be profitable enough, we will use the advantage of the truck: its permanent mobility and the fact we can change the location to change the customer’s segment reached.
Monitored
4
Competitors at local level being numerous (fast-food, bakeries…)
M
M
Mitigation
Organic and affordable food encourage in our business model: competitive advantage enabling a differentiation from competitors
Monitored
5
Low financial means from students to purchase organic food
M
M
Mitigation
Affordability is a key to our project: customer’s profile being students, low prices must be guaranteed
Monitored
Deployment Strategy and Major Milestones
Our project requires upfront financial investment. The majority will be fulfilled by the co-founders (bank, families, friends…). By relaying the link on Sciences Po student networks on Facebook, we can get enough exposure. We have several leads and plan to contact the teachers, incubators and partners from the Science Po incubator to raise funds and even find mentors interested in our project.
Once the concept becomes mature, we would like to participate in incubator contests or pitch (Student Day, We_Pitch from the We Start association, Numa event, Station F or Schoolab etc.) as well as training(The Family for example), in order to acquire skills, expand network and make ourselves known to potential partners and / or investors.
Finally, we would like to find an outgoing business school associate with a taste for entrepreneurship and cater to be a team of 2 co-founders.
Communication plan
Today communication is one of the key points of any restaurant, especially in Paris where there are a lot of offers, especially when it comes to students. The team should be careful to present our project on social networks like Facebook and Instagram by posting the upcoming menu every week. A website will be created then(mobile adaptable). The communication campaign will manage to reach a large audience and to cost within budgetary level. A presence active on social networks will launch surveys for the themes of the following month in order to know the satisfaction of the customers and their possible critics and recommendations (feedback) and finally to announce the products of the day.
The importance of a strong logo
The logo is very important because it represents the brand of the company and the message that we want to convey. We don't have design skills but we intends to call on a friend who studied at ECV Paris to create a logo for us. We aware that we want a green logo to reflect strong ecological commitment. This logo will gradually be printed on the bowls, cups and bags given to customers.
Several medium and long-term development measures
This project is still just an idea being thought about, matured. However, if this business works, we already have a lot of ideas in the medium and longer term to increase our project’s growth and revenues.
1. Create a smartphone application to order and pay for the dish in advance
Customers will be able to view the menu every week through our application and order directly in the same day, a few hours in advance. Also, consumers are able to reserve their dishes, specify the time of collection and pay in advance. This will save time for our customers and optimize service management for our employees.
2. Open some evenings
It will be interesting to study the option of opening certain evenings for students going from 19:15 or 21:15 around Sciences Po. After all the building of 27 Saint Guillaume closes at 11 p.m. on weekdays and 8 p.m. or 9:30 p.m. on weekends.
3. Circulate in different Parisian schools
In order to test the model in other schools than Sciences Po, we would love to circulate in different places by announcing it upstream on social networks. It could be perfect that it is on a fixed day so that students will know about it. For example, Mondays and Thursdays, we can be at Sciences Po, while Tuesdays and Fridays we’ll on the Place du Panthéon near Assas, the Sorbonne and many others establishments (high schools, universities and preparatory classes). And on Wednesdays we will stay near Paris-Dauphine University near Porte Dauphine where students face little choice of restaurants in the surrounding area. For a second step, if it works, we will be able to expand to other French cities. Developing internationally is not yet an objective.
Appendix: Bibliography
- Orazem, Peter F., "Education" (2013). Economics Publications. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/econ_las_pubs/404, P. 273-300
- Eating made easy, “Ways to make Organic food more affordable”: https://eating-made-easy.com/9-ways-make-organic-food-affordable/
- The Guardian, “Why should I eat organic ?” https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/07/why-should-i-eat-organic-google
- Money crashers, « Plan for how to start a Mobile Food Truck Business” https://www.moneycrashers.com/how-to-start-food-truck-business-plan/
- Business News Daily, « How to start a Food Truck Business” https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/9237-how-to-start-food-truck-business.html
- ThebalanceSmb, « How to start a food truck business” https://www.thebalancesmb.com/how-to-start-a-food-truck-business-2888645
- Statista, “Organic food market in Europe” https://www.statista.com/topics/3446/organic-food-market-in-europe/
Comments