Stéphanie Jauquet (CEO of Cocottes): Cocottes Comes to the Table
Stéphanie Jauquet started as a salaried employee in various restaurants, but it didn't take her long to open her own business. After Um Plateau, À Table and Tempo, the entrepreneur founded the Cocottes chain, which now has 18 catering outlets. Today, she takes us on a tour of her factory, the nerve center of her business.
The little dishes in the big
You have to cross the border twice in one minute to get to the Cocottes delicatessen factory: Once on the motorway and a second time near Arlon. Arriving at eight sharp, Stéphanie is already waiting for us, perfectly relaxed. This may come as a surprise, given that the group's 175 employees work 24 hours a day, six days a week. The Cocottes pastry chefs start work at 1 am, before being joined in turn by the cooks, the sales teams, and the restaurant staff. There's no secret to motivating all these people, as Stéphanie points out: "It takes a lot of diplomacy, and I try to provide an optimal working environment with a motivating salary.”
"Today, there are no more problems, only solutions"
On the menu: A vision for the future
The brand-new building includes a shop selling cocottes, elegant offices, and a labyrinth of spacious rooms and refrigerators. As we walk through each room, we are struck by the complexity of regulations in the food sector. Stéphanie doesn't seem to mind. And with good reason: She is also the Managing Director of Munis, a local consultancy specializing in food regulations. Once we've washed our hands and donned our astronaut suits, we head for the lower level. Here, suppliers deliver their goods before an army of hands stores them, moves them, cooks them, assembles them, packs them, stores them - once again - and finally dispatches them. And despite the hustle and bustle, the building manages to remain calm and constantly clean. As we push through a door, Stéphanie takes us straight into the future. A new fridge will soon be arriving, it will be able to accommodate a special production line for certain exceptional deliveries. This machine will be full in three hours and empty ten minutes later. There's no doubt that a strong vision is essential for investing several million euros in a business like this. But it must be said that Stéphanie has a clear plan in her head, doesn't count the hours she works, and can draw on her many successes to rise to any challenge.
A hunger for success
From her head office, Stéphanie can now concentrate on the strategic development of her business. She could choose to open boutiques in Paris or Brussels, add addresses to her collection in Luxembourg or develop collaborations with supermarkets. There is no shortage of opportunities. Luxembourg may be small, but the world knows no bounds. A success Stéphanie could hardly have imagined, having launched Cocottes in May 2014 to put the dishes she cooked to good use. Yet it has taken less than five years for companies to emerge trying to emulate her concept. A fine tribute in itself. Far from the trial and error of the early days, Cocottes is now pure business. The entrepreneur with the best vision, the best team, and the best implementation will win. That morning, with her attentive management and her clear vision of the future, Stéphanie was the perfect embodiment of a successful entrepreneur.