Innovation

In 2019, Pierrot Gourmand innovated by working with VETA (Vivre Et Travailler Ensemble, Live and Work Together). The purpose of the VETA is to include autistic people in the workplace and society. The lollipop and candy company in Corrèze (France) started working with one autistic worker. Today, the company is employing eight autistic workers, who are helped by three attendants to realize their missions in the factory. They usually work as warehousemen, 4 hours a day, with the attendants that supervise and show them how to do their missions. They need special attention to stay focused and to realize their tasks carefully and consciously. They are assisted until they manage to reach the autonomy to work by themselves. For the rest of their time, they are getting included in society by playing sports and music. Plus the assistants help them to do their shopping for example. The autistic workers are accommodated near the factory.

Inspiration

Today in France, 1 in 100 people is born autistic. Autism manifests primarily as impaired social interactions and communication and restricted, repetitive interests. It is estimated that only 5% of autistic people have access to employment. This is especially the case for people with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) with an intellectual disability, who are deemed unemployable.

Jean-François Dufresne, the former CEO of Andros group, whose son has been diagnosed autistic, initiated the creation, in 2014, of the association VETA (Vivre Et Travailler Ensemble, Live and work together). The purpose of the VETA is to include autistic people in the workplace and society. Actually, "autistic people have an important added value to the workplace.”

That’s why in 2014 Novandie‘s company - a subdivision of Andros located near Chartres (France) - hired its first autistic person. In 2019, it was Pierrot Gourmand which welcomed its first autistic worker.

Overall impact

The project has started in Novandie in another subdivision of Andros located near Chartres (France). In 2019, Pierrot Gourmand hired the first autistic person in their company. Now, eight autistic people work for the company with an open-ended contract. Nevertheless, the company still has new objectives: Pierrot Gourmand wants to recruit two more autistic persons, and Andros wants to integrate autistic persons more than in two of their subdivisions and especially integrate them in the parent company Andros.

Furthermore, concerning the short term, the autistic workers give hope to the parents who have autistic children and who worked in the company. This integration shows the diversity of Pierrot Gourmand and its desire to integrate the whole society.

Business benefit

The major difficulty of this project is the funding. Indeed, the autistic workers spend 4 hours at the factory. They do segmented labor, they sort the lollipops to check if they are not broken and to put them in boxes of 10. Furthermore, they proceed to the washing of the tray used during the confection of lollipops and they participate in the sieving of the starch. During the rest of the day, the people affected by ASD are helped by assistants to do their shopping for example but also to do their leisure activities such as rugby or playing music. That is why the project is a real social inclusion project in society.

However, to lead a project of this scale, the company had to make a tripartite agreement. Pierrot Gourmand needs financial assistance from the government and the local department. That project was therefore made possible thanks to the RHA (Regional Health Agency), the department, and the State, which committed financial support for the inclusion, by training and having available socio-medical educators to help them until they grow entirely autonomous.

In addition, with the project Pierrot Gourmand participates in the inclusion of disabled people and that is why the company does not pay the tax imposed on each company that does not integrate them.

Social and environmental benefit

Integrating staff with autism benefits society in different ways and this is a thing that Andros's group has understood. The first and most important advantage is to show that their difference is not inevitable and that despite this handicap they are just as capable of performing arduous tasks. With the help of specialized educators, they can learn how to do so, showing that they can be just as useful and participate in the smooth running of the business. This initiative also shows families of autistic people that despite the difficulties there is still an opportunity. This is reflected in the eyes of staff who are proud to take part in this inclusive adventure but also in the eyes of customers who adhere to the group’s values and proudly choose to consume products from an inclusive company.

The Andros group and Pierrot Gourmand do not want to stop there and intend to carry out various other projects that have a positive impact on society and the environment. Among these projects, we can mention their desire to reduce water consumption by 25% by 2027 or make products more recyclable through the use of mono-material plastic much easier to recycle by 2025. These projects show the extent to which Pierrot Gourmand and the Andros group wish to be integrated into this CSR approach and show the consumers that they also participate when they choose Pierrot Gourmand.

Interview

TARDIF Nicolas, Plant Manager