Providing an up-to-date snapshot of the meal voucher market, measuring the value created and perceived by operators and users, estimating the effects of possible regulatory reforms in order to test a model and create a permanent Observatory.
These are the objectives of the research: "The social and economic impact of meal vouchers" promoted by ANSEB - National Association of Meal Voucher Issuers in collaboration with ALTIS Graduate School of Sustainable Management of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, presented during an event that saw the institutional greetings of Alessia Coeli, General Manager ALTIS.
Immediately afterwards, the curators of the research Marco Grazzi, Professor of Economic Policy and Luca Pesenti, Associate Professor of General Sociology, both professors at Università Cattolica, presented the results of the research, which saw the participation of the five main companies in the meal voucher sector operating in Italy, covering about 90% of the market: Edenred, Up Day, Pluxee (formerly Sodexo BRS), Pellegrini, Toduba.
This was followed by the round table moderated by the journalist of Il Sole 24 Ore, Giorgio Pogliotti, in dialogue with Pierangelo Albini, Director of the Labour, Welfare and Human Capital Area of Confindustria; Gianluca Bianco, CISL National Bargaining Department; Hon. Maria Chiara Gadda, Italia Viva, XIII Commission (Agriculture); Sen. Paola Mancini, Fratelli d'Italia, X Commission (Social Affairs, Health, Public and Private Employment, Social Security).
The event ended with the conclusions by Matteo Orlandini, President of ANSEB and Luciano Sbraga, Director of the Study Center - Fipe-Confcommercio.
Cornerstone of welfare
"The Meal Voucher is confirmed as one of the main cornerstones of corporate welfare. In fact, the research demonstrates the effectiveness of this tool for all workers, from those in small and medium-sized enterprises to employees of large companies. The virtuosity of the system is demonstrated by the possibility for employees and freelancers to be able to access an agile, innovative and increasingly digital tool for the protection of their purchasing power. Also for this reason, the recent proposals to increase the tax-free amount up to 10 euros would constitute an effective support against inflation and an appropriate adjustment to the average cost of the lunch break," said Matteo Orlandini, president of ANSEB.
Less purchasing power
"The structural situation of our country is well known, in which, on average, labour income has remained substantially unchanged in recent years. In this already unfavorable context, the spiral of price increases following the pandemic has been added which, as our analyses show, has seen the food sector among those most affected by the price increase. The combined dynamics, on the one hand, of the stationary trend in labour income and, on the other, of increased food expenditure due to inflation, have contributed to a compression of household purchasing power," explained Marco Grazzi, who oversaw the analysis of market and regulatory developments with Bernardo Caldarola, researcher at UNU-MERIT.
Appreciated tool
"The meal voucher is now an important element of the "total compansation" policies of Italian companies, with a rather significant satisfaction on the part of users (employees). Together with corporate welfare benefits, this tool is particularly relevant in this long season of wage moderation to increase the purchasing power of families. On the merchant side, the tool is more appreciated in non-metropolitan areas and in Central-Southern Italy, thus qualifying as an element capable of affecting weaker economic areas. In short, it is a benefit that shows obvious social and economic relevance," continued Luca Pesenti who, with the processing of data by researcher Gisella Accolla, carried out the user & merchants satisfaction analysis.
As a result of the pandemic, the purchasing power of households therefore shows a substantial reduction, largely due to the increase in the food expenditure component. In this context, the meal voucher increases the availability for food consumption.
On the side of companies, a positive trend emerges for ANSEB members: the profitability of member companies – in particular profitability per employee – has improved over the last 10 years, despite a relatively constant distribution of employment and production value.
User analysis
- The meal voucher is confirmed as a flexible support, used on multiple channels: where there is greater use towards large-scale distribution, the main reasons are the lack of bars or restaurants near the workplace, an event present above all in the non-metropolitan areas of the South.
- For 66% of the sample, meal vouchers cover on average between 50 and 80% of the cost of a meal;
- 62% of the sample expresses a medium or high level of satisfaction. On average, the under-35s (especially for the digital/app versions), women, blue-collar workers and residents of Central Italy are more satisfied.
- The meal voucher is increasingly perceived as a "right" by the employee (average score of 4.1 on a scale of 1 to 5), while it is not perceived as an element that subtracts part of the employee's salary.
Merchant analysis
- The perception of the meal voucher as a useful "service" to increase customers prevails. The greatest perceived utility is among the distribution exercises.
- Cards and apps are considered a guarantee of greater collection (51% of the sample), but their use is satisfactory for only 39% (due to slowdowns on the lines, the need to use more POS, refund times).
- Greater satisfaction in the non-metropolitan areas of the Centre-South, with a strong positive perception of the instrument in terms of greater collection guarantee (51%).
Methodology
The investigation was carried out in 4 phases:
- Analysis of the evolution of member companies.
- The analysis of the observed effects of the reforms on the exemption thresholds introduced by the legislation in recent years.
- The analysis of use and satisfaction by a national sample of meal voucher users, representative of the universe of users, equal to about 3 million (with 15,957 respondents).
- The analysis of use and satisfaction by a national sample of merchants, representative of the universe, equal to about 150 thousand (with 2,379 respondents).