►Le BHV
A small clap of thunder in the Parisian commercial landscape. The City Hall Bazaar (BHV) is about to change hands. This hasn’t happened to him often. Created in 1860, the department store has long remained in the bosom of the family of its founder, François-Xavier Ruel. After him, his grandson runs the business. Then, when the latter died, a brother-in-law took over the reins.
More than a century after the creation, in 1989, this family transmission came to an end. Galeries Lafayette become the majority and take control of the company. Three decades later, they are preparing to hand over, announcing on Thursday February 16 the opening of negotiations with the Société des grands Magasins (SGM), a company created by a brother and a sister in their thirties, which already manages shopping centers of downtown.
► Galeries Lafayette: the family adventure continues
Founded in 1894, the small trinket shop called Aux galeries Lafayette has grown since then and transformed into a group with a turnover of 4.5 billion euros. Nevertheless, the company founded by two Alsatian cousins, Théophile Bader and Alphonse Kahn, is still largely family owned, controlled by the descendants of the founders.
The current boss of the group’s supervisory board, Philippe Houzé, is thus the husband of Christiane Moulin, a descendant of Théophile Bader. The management board is chaired by Patricia Moulin Lemoine, daughter of Ginette Lemoine, the granddaughter of the founder of Galeries Lafayette.
► Le Bon Marché, shopping cathedral on the left bank
Created in 1838, Au bon marché – as it was called until 1989 – became a small novelty store in 1852, before transforming into a “cathedral of modern commerce”. Its owner, Aristide Boucicaut, made Le Bon Marché the first of the Parisian department stores from 1872.
After a long phase of success and expansion, the flagship department store on the left bank of Paris entered a turbulent period from the 1950s. Placed in liquidation, bought by the Willot brothers, owners of the À la beautiful gardener, the group ended up being bought in 1984 by Financière Agache owned by Bernard Arnault. Au bon marché joins the LVMH group and becomes “Le Bon Marché” after renovation work to make it a luxury department store.
► La Samaritaine, LVMH’s other temple of luxury
Located between rue de Rivoli and the Seine, in the heart of Paris, La Samaritaine was founded in 1870. The commercial prosperity of the store declined slowly from the 1970s, before becoming loss-making. In 2001, the Renand family, owners of the store, sold it to the LVMH group, before the store closed in 2005 for refurbishment and upgrading to safety standards.
In November 2010, the luxury giant took full control of the department store, which therefore joined the purse of Bernard Arnault. The boss of LVMH inaugurates the new Samaritaine in June 2021, after sixteen years of work.
► Le Printemps, from Pinault to the Qataris
Like Le Bon Marché or La Samaritaine, Printemps was once backed by a French fashion giant. The store, founded in 1865, was in fact bought in the early 1990s by PPR, which has since become Kering, a company that brings together the companies of the Pinault family.
In 2006, the luxury magnate, who then owned Gucci or Fnac, decided to separate from the Parisian department store. He then sold it to a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank associated with the Italian businessman Maurizio Borletti, owner of the department stores La Rinascente. However, the adventure will be quite brief. In 2013, Printemps was bought by a Qatari investment fund which still owns it.