Premier Tech and East Side | A multinational that eats local

(Rivière-du-Loup) This is the story of a multinational that had an appetite for a local menu and that of a small restaurant that had to grow to survive. Two destinies have thus united, allowing Premier Tech, whose head office is located in Rivière-du-Loup, to offer its employees an extraordinary cafeteria service with meals cooked by Côté Est, a renowned restaurant in Kamouraska. .

“The secret of Côté Est, that was it,” says with a smile Perle Morency, co-owner of the restaurant with her partner and chef of the establishment, Kim Côté. Leaning at the counter of the Kamouraska restaurant where a window lets in the sun and a glimpse of the river, she does not hide the fact that the partnership concluded with Premier Tech is one of the elements that has allowed her business to stay afloat in recent years. , during this difficult time for the restaurant industry.

“Why is Côté Est still alive? We have always diversified our activities,” she answers simply. Between 2012 and 2024, the restaurateurs added several aspects to their business, including a food concession on the campus of Premier Tech, a Louperivoise multinational that specializes in particular in horticulture, agriculture, industrial development and the environment.

“They came for us. They like to offer their teammates and their workers cafes that serve what I would call “good food”. Good spaghetti, chicken, stir-fries, sandwiches prepared with more and more products from the region,” describes Perle Morency.

This is not a cafeteria

About forty kilometers to the east, Stéphanie Thériault, public relations manager at Premier Tech, sitting at one of the company’s two cafeterias, explains to The Press, which it welcomed at its head office in Rivière-du-Loup, why the company set its sights on Côté Est in 2015.

Quick clarification first: no one here talks about “cafeteria”. These places where employees can order a specialty coffee, a freshly baked muffin, or a comforting plate at lunchtime have instead been called Tech Cafés. It must be said that with its armchairs, its large bay windows, its wooden tables, its counter with multiple pastries, its small glass jars filled with nuts, its fridge full of colorful salads, the place has nothing to do with it. with the typical image of a traditional cafeteria. “It’s not a cafeteria. It’s really a coffee experience that we want to create,” emphasizes M.^me Thériault.

“We like to have a signature,” says M.^me Thériault while preparing a plate of polpettes topped with tomato sauce, the dish on the daily menu. Monday, it was parmentier and braised beef, at the end of the week, a poke bowl with spicy shrimp. These daily specials offered in a generous portion, we found, cost around $11. They are prepared every day by a team of four Côté Est employees who work a few meters away, in a container converted into a kitchen. For a more upscale meal, in an executive menu, you can be served a St. Lawrence fish steak accompanied by garden vegetables, for example, for around $17.

“The idea is to be an important player for the communities where we are present and to contribute to the development of these communities,” he adds.

In this area of ​​the city where there are no restaurants nearby, the Tech Café almost becomes an essential destination for those who don’t have their lunch.

And while the “team members”, the name given to Premier Tech employees, have access to a menu that has nothing to envy of that of many cafes and restaurants, Côté Est can count on “recurring income”, underlines Perle Morency .

“It’s the inverted curve of tourism,” she explains. With them, it starts in September and increases until March, April, May. [Au printemps], it’s really demanding, there are a lot of international events, people who come here to Premier Tech, who come for training. There are really a lot of activities. And summer falls. »

Fortunately because the restaurant, canteen and boutique in Kamouraska are buzzing with customers during the summer season.

The pandemic… and changing habits

Although the two cafeterias seem popular on the Premier Tech campus, they were nevertheless deserted for some time during the pandemic, like everywhere else. Perle Morency acknowledges that business was then “slow”.

Did she want to abandon this concession? ” They [les représentants de Premier Tech] committed to paying a minimum to maintain the service, she emphasizes. It is the commitment of this company that allowed us to stay. »

And after these difficult months, the return of workers to the office coincides with the emergence of new habits, she observes.

“People find it so expensive at the grocery store that they eat a lot more at the food concession [où ils ont l’impression d’en avoir pour leur argent] “, she says. However, it was impossible for Premier Tech to provide us with precise data on this subject. Stéphanie Thériault nevertheless said she was inclined to believe that Tech Cafés attracted more employees. The president and CEO, Jean Bélanger, eats there himself every day.

“We also noted a new reflex,” indicates Perle Morency. People take a takeaway meal for lunch and eat it at home in the evening. We’ve never seen this in 10 years. »

Instead of treating themselves to dinner at a restaurant, ordering or purchasing a ready-to-eat meal at the grocery store, employees seem to be turning to their cafeteria service to avoid the hassle of making dinner.

Does this new trend make him want to open food concessions in other businesses in the region? “Not really,” replies Perle Morency straight away. There really is an identity, a DNA, at Premier Tech in terms of business development and the offers they make to their employees, which is unique. The campus is a small town in itself. »

“And the customers of the food concession also become customers of Côté Est in Kamouraska. »