It was a bet. It turned out to be a winner, well beyond expectations… Nearly 1,500 employees of La Redoute (about one in two), based in Roubaix (North), who became shareholders in their company when it was taken over in 2014, will share an envelope of 100 million euros. Indeed, last December, Galeries Lafayette officially entered the capital at 100%. An arrival that allows employees to recover up to 1,000 times the amount invested a few years ago. Explanations.
The employee shareholders “will share around 100 million euros, or 100,000 euros on average per person for a symbolic initial investment less than ten years ago. Proof, if necessary, that employee share ownership is among the most profitable savings plans, ”reveals in a press release, taken up by BFM Business, Equalis Capital, a consulting firm in employee share ownership.
Because in 2014, Equalis Capital accompanied the takeover, for a symbolic euro, from the Kering group, of the distance selling brand by the two leaders Nathalie Balla and Éric Courteille. The latter decide, in their grand plan to save the company, to bring the employees into the capital of the company. If we do not know how high the entry ticket was, some have only invested a hundred euros.
The business has recovered dramatically
This is the case of an executive, interviewed by France 2, who invested 150 euros in 2014 and will receive more than 100,000 euros. A great return on investment. “The company has really recovered a lot and that inevitably creates value. It’s great that it is redistributed to those who have built this success,” explains the director of customer service. Whether they are still in the company or not, all will recover the redemption value of their shares, which they have accepted.
After the buyout of 51% of the shares by Galeries Lafayette in 2018, the group finished acquiring the remaining 49%, divided between the two managers and the employees, last December. The value of the company, which surfed the Covid period, stopped its catalog to develop on the Internet, is now estimated at one billion euros according to our colleagues from France 3.
“We welcome the offensive and ambitious strategy implemented to successfully transform La Redoute,” Nathalie Balla and Éric Courteille told the e-commerce magazine. La Redoute is doing well, it is on the right track. It is with the satisfaction of the work accomplished that we pass the baton”.