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– The meteoric rise of GiFi founder, Philippe Ginestet.
Will GiFi disappear? With its 700 points of sale, the brand founded by Philippe Ginestet has been crumbling under difficulties for several months, mainly due to a faulty new IT system. But like Capital explained, the distributor had announced an agreement with financial partners to reschedule its debt. Today, its founder has decided to “hand over in the best possible conditions”according to his lawyer. But who is Philippe Ginestet? 47th French fortune in 2024 with 1.7 billion euros (according to Forbes), the businessman has experienced a meteoric rise, explains Actu.fr.
Born in 1954 in Lot-et-Garonne, he opened his first GiFi store in 1981 in Villeneuve-sur-Lot. After leaving school in third grade, he then cleaning trucks and stables in Normandy before going to Paris to become sweeper. In an interview given to ForbesPhilippe Ginestet remembered: “I was going to Paris by hitchhiking because I knew I could find work there through temp agencies”even adding that he had “spent his first night in a metro”.
GiFi: is it really over?
A “gypsy” life before opening GiFi
He will then become a door-to-door salesman of household appliances for Electrolux where he was “paid on commission”. According to Actu.fr, without having made a single sale in three weeks, he was very close to being fired. However, it will still stand out for its sales talentachieving up to “100 sales per month” while management did not ask “between 12 and 15”which attracted the attention of the CEO of Electrolux in Sweden. He then became interested in auctions and then markets after resigning: “I quickly understood that there was even better than the markets: clearance sales, very popular in France”he explained in Forbes in 2020.
Became “gypsy”according to his statements, he lived on the roads of France for three years with his partner and his son before wanting to settle down and therefore open his first GiFi store. Today, with 6,500 employees, 700 points of sale in 17 countries, including nearly 600 stores in France, Philippe Ginestet has decided to turn the page. If employees say to themselves “worried”buyers are already in the running, we learned Capital. Starting with Moez-Alexandre Zouari, at the head of Maxi Bazar and Stokomani.
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