The private daycare group People & Baby caused a scandal in 2022 after the death of a baby. Today in turmoil, the company illustrates the rapid liberalization of a changing sector.
It is 7:30 a.m. when Lisa, 11 months old, is dropped off by her father at the Danton Rêve microcrèche in Lyon by People & Baby, on June 22, 2022. Myriam J. welcomes her alone and then cleans the premises before the other toddlers arrive. But Lisa cries a lot. Exasperated, the childcare assistant allegedly sprays her with detergent. The little girl dies at the end of the morning. This tragedy has the effect of a bomb. Investigation missions, reports, books… Tongues are loosened about the exhaustion of professionals, the cases of mistreatment that result from it and the dubious practices of certain managers.
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People & Baby is not being prosecuted in this case, only the employee is being indicted. “This could have happened anywhere,” confided a competitor. But the group, which employs 6,000 people and welcomes 11,000 children in 583 daycare centers in France, remains the one through which the scandal arrived.
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On the market, People & Baby occupies a special, if not isolated, place. Professionals, competitors or suppliers often portray it as the black sheep low cost – something its founders have always denied, defending a “coveted premium positioning”. The group’s rise reflects the rapid liberalization of the sector over the last twenty years.
People & Baby was born in 2004, a stone’s throw from the Champs-Elysées. Behind the project, a couple in the city, Christophe Durieux and Odile Broglin, today 57 and 53 years old. He, an entrepreneur, cut his teeth in communications. She, a pediatric nurse, was a crèche director in the hospital public service. Parents of two young children, the duo stands out next to the young wolves of finance who are arriving in the sector.
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“At that time, the legislation on the methods of financing daycare centers was changing,” says Christophe Durieux in a 2016 interview.[…]
- challenges.fr
