Where is GiFi going? In mid-November 2024, the management of the discounter formalized the search for a buyer in the face of major losses. At 70 years old, its director and founder Philippe Ginestet promised to want to hand over the reins in the best conditions. The path today seems very compromised given the scale of the problems brewing in the bazaar chain. This is what reveals to The Tribune employees of the Lot-et-Garonnais distributor at the head of 600 stores.
According to these CFDT elected officials and representatives of the CSE, dissatisfied with being sufficiently informed about the evolution of the file, the company is “in serious danger” given its financial situation. “ The setup of the Ginestet empire is complex, we do not know how to precisely quantify the debt. But we estimate that it is equivalent to our turnover, around a billion euros. This is a very worrying ratio for a company in our sector. », says Laurent Mardaga, CFDT manager and spokesperson for the inter-union on the company's social committee.
A situation which pushed the management, supported by the interministerial committee for industrial restructuring, to request the cancellation of its debt with the banks. According to the media La Lettre, GiFi obtained the abandonment of 470 million euros of debt from three bank lenders, in exchange for a bailout by its leader. Which doesn't solve everything, however.
Staff representatives observe a sharp drop in activity: “Today, commercial performance is not good. The agreement signed in May between Mr Ginestet and the court [en l’occurrence une procédure de conciliation, ndlr] did not speak of a restructuring plan because he did not foresee a drop in activity. This is where the problem lies.”explain, worried, Pierre Laffore and Fabrice Brun, also unionized at the CFDT. In 2023, the brand recorded a turnover down 13%, to 1.3 billion euros, despite the opening of new stores.
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Employee departures
The fear of a social plan weighs heavily on employees, fueled by a persistent question: will GiFi have to resort to legal recovery to regain financial stability? The uncertainty remains total. Contacted, the brand's lawyer did not respond.
On the ground, the departure of employees has already started according to staff representatives. In one year, the historic headquarters of Villeneuve-sur-Lot, which houses a purchasing center and a depot, would have experienced around a hundred voluntary departures among the 920 people still employed at the end of 2023. The atmosphere is very bad, the employees are tired of living in anxiety, they have the impression of being in a boat that is going to sinktestifies Pierre Laffore. We end up wanting a social plan rather than remaining in the current situation. Management could very well choose to let the situation deteriorate to push for departures. »
The question of payroll is one of the levers to resolve the company's situation. Management could be forced to do so because it has already benefited from a rescheduling of its debt with the State and financial partners in March 2024. GiFi then called for help from Bercy and its interministerial industrial restructuring committee after have encountered unprecedented difficulties related to a software change.
A precious real estate heritage
The integration of this new ERP (Integrated Management Software Package) took place in a chaotic manner, causing the company's information systems to shut down in the summer of 2023. GiFi found itself in the dark for several weeks. “No longer knowing what we have in our stocks very quickly becomes unmanageable. You no longer have a vision of your supply, you do not know what you are buying, what is in your warehouses and in your stores, it is turnover that disappears, stacks Jean-Paul Crenn, president of the consulting firm Vuca Strategy and e-commerce specialist. If you miss summer, you have all your stock on hand. As it is bulky, storage costs are very high. But the mess is rotation. And if you don't have the products when people want them, they go elsewhere.”term-t-il.
This software blockage therefore caused very rapid losses to the brand which has physical commerce in DNA. Enough to cause its dominance to waver in favor of Dutch competitor Action, which is opening stores like crazy, with more than 800 sales locations in France and slashed prices. A name mentioned among the potential candidates for takeover but the candidates have, it seems, all thrown in the towel in the face of the complexity of the file.
The real estate arrangement of the GiFi stores made the task particularly complex since Philippe Ginestet owns, in his own name, several hundred stores and controls his entire supply chain, including having a purchasing center in China. opened in 2007. The sum of rent that the stores pay is equivalent to the payroll. Its desire to preserve real estate assets could derail the sale », Estimates one of the employees. And would suggest that the boss is the only one capable of ensuring continued activity.
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