The Muglier family is one of the richest in France and Europe. They are known throughout the world as the founders of Auchan hypermarkets, whose history dates back to 1961.
However, not a single member of this family is on the list of billionaires. The main reason is the uniform distribution of shares in all companies between them. Thus, despite the annual income of Auchan at 36 billion euros, there is not a single Mulier who could boast fabulous wealth.
Muglier family history
This family has its own history since ancient times. At the very beginning of the 20th century, they were known in France as successful industrialists. They had yarn factories. However, the history of the Auchan store is associated with a specific representative of this family - Gerard Mulier (younger). He was born in 1931 in the city of Roubaud. Since he was the first-born, according to family traditions, he was given the name of his father (Gerard).
The family business was in constant development. However, after World War II, Gerard Sr. began to understand that in addition to production, it was necessary to invest financial resources in other industries. At that time, retail began to develop . This industry was much simpler and more profitable compared to production. The first investment of the Muglier family in the opening of the store was a failure.
Features of organizing the business of this family
Thanks to the strong zeal of Gerard Jr. to work, the decision was made in the Muglier family to expand their own business.
At that time, Gerard began to fairly successfully advance through the ranks. In 1958, he became the director of sales. At that time, there was an agreement in the family, according to which each member of the family received an equal share in absolutely all enterprises that belonged to Mullet.
Another important feature is the fact that the family never took any partners from the outside. It was a peculiar tradition of Mullier.
Preconditions for the opening of the first Auchan store
The history of the creation of the first store of this trading network originates a little later. At that time, production remained the main business of the Mullier family. Despite the fact that the first attempts to open a retail store were unsuccessful, Gerard Sr. decided to try again. And this time he entrusted this matter to his son.
So in 1960 the history of the Auchan store began. During this period, Mullier Sr. went to the city of Dayton to participate in a seminar organized by a company engaged in searching for buyers among French retail chains for the commissioning of special cash registers (ECCA prototypes). The seminar was led by B. Trurio, known as an ardent supporter of self-service stores. He called not only to reduce the cost of staff serving customers in the hall, but also to reduce prices as part of the savings. Also, the Auchan hypermarket was among the first to “organize” an adjacent parking lot, thanks to which customers can come by car to shop.
Opening of the first store
Inspired by new ideas, Gerard Sr sent his son to this seminar, who immediately becomes an ardent supporter of such a new form of carrying out trading activities. Thus, the first Auchan store was opened, the history of which is described in our review.
Already at that time, Mullier realized that it was the future of supermarkets. He decided to try to open Auchan hypermarket in France, which later became a symbol of business France, thanks to which the Mullet family became even more wealthy.
Birth of the Auchan network
The history of creation began in July 1961, when the first store was opened. For family tragedies, all Mullier representatives received equal shares in the store. However, in this case there were some nuances: Gerard Jr. started this business with a partner. This was due to the distrust with which the family reacted to this idea. Accordingly, the allocated financial resources for this branch of the business were not enough.
Therefore, the history of Auchan is connected with the name of the industrialist Michel Segar, who has invested about 600 thousand francs (50% of the company's share) in this trading network. And this went against the principles of the Mullier family.
The first failures in trade
Due to the lack of experience in the retail trade of young entrepreneurs, a large number of mistakes were made, which, of course, led to some adverse consequences. For the first time this manifested itself in the first year of work in the form of losses of about 200 thousand francs. At that time, the Auchan hypermarket was not as huge as it is now. Therefore, the size of the losses was a colossal amount for him.
During this period, the Mullier family had already begun to think in order to close the Auchan store. The history of the company could not have taken place, if not for the wisdom of the head of the family. He gave his son three years to develop this line of business .
However, the only condition was put forward by Gerard Sr. was the withdrawal from Segar’s partnership. After all, it is already known that the Mullier family did not recognize partnerships from outside.
The heyday of the Auchan chain of stores
These three years were not in vain for Gerard Jr. He quite successfully began to learn from experienced sellers who told him how to lay out the goods, as well as the rules for applying discounts on products. These tips were of great value to a novice entrepreneur.
Important for gaining experience in retail trade were meetings with Marcel Fournier (owner of the Carrefour network), who proved to him that selling a hundred boxes of chocolates with a small margin is much more profitable than ten boxes, but with a high margin.
The success of Auchan stores today is associated with the low cost of goods sold. The first huge hypermarket with a total area of 12 thousand square meters. meters with the same name was opened in 1967 in Ronke.
Merchandising is an important component of retail stores
With the development of this chain of stores, merchandising has also been actively developing. Trading floors actively took into account all the innovations in trading.
In 1977, there were such innovations as rewarding employees with shares of this company. Thus, in the end, 17% of the Auchan store was in the hands of workers.
Since 1981, the active expansion of the network of stores around the world begins. In total, there are more than 1100 supermarkets in 12 countries with 186 thousand employees and corresponding turnover (at least 37 billion euros).
The first hypermarket in Russia was opened in 2002 in Mytishchi near Moscow. To date, about 4 supermarkets and 15 hypermarkets have been opened in our country.
However, family traditions continue to be maintained, and members of the Mullier family still have equal shares in each company.
The name "Auchan" received from the French name of the locality where Gerard Muglier Jr. was born. In French, pronounced "O Cham." The first supermarket in Russia was of the same name. However, taking into account the peculiarities of Russian linguistics, the company was re-registered as Auchan.
In 2006, the founder of a chain of stores has already moved away from management. However, in his 83 years he continues to actively participate in the affairs of the company.
Thus, on the example of the Auchan chain of stores, you can see that only patience and determination help a novice businessman to actively develop his business. It is also necessary to remember such an important moment as studying the experience of other similar enterprises so as not to repeat their mistakes.