The low-priced home products brand GiFi is on sale

The rumor was there and it is confirmed. Potential buyers can come forward from Monday. The 6,500 employees want to know into whose hands they will fall.

“Genius ideas”, slogan GIFI stores, no longer make money. Hard blow for the founder of the company in 1981 in Villeneuve-sur-Lot (Lot-et-Garonne), Philippe Ginestet – 27^e fortune de France – which will give its initials to the brand: GI for Ginestet, FI for Philippe. Philippe Ginest is the majority shareholder through a family structure and 5% held by staff. The investment bank Lazard is mandated to find a buyer. Candidates can apply from Monday, November 18.

GIFI has 6,500 employees spread across 700 points of sale and an international presence. The company has not recovered from a giant IT failure which affected it in 2023. Failure linked to a change in internal software. Enough to make any good financial director lose his head. The seized internal information system meant that field data (sales in stores) could no longer be reported correctly to headquarters. A chain that is going into a tailspin with the consequences of poor replenishment from warehouses, a loss of turnover, and therefore of profits… suppliers paid randomly and legal proceedings initiated.

We can clearly see the infernal spiral, but the IT problems have been resolved and stocks replenished for the 2024 end-of-year holidays. The company is in a promising niche with its products at low prices at a time of power. purchase at half mast. The fact remains that its future is no longer in the hands of its founder, Philippe Ginestet, known as GiFi, who is 70 years old. Whose hands will the brand fall into? A distribution giant like Carrefour? A hard discount specialist? A destocker? Some 6,500 employees today want to know into whose hands they will fall.