"Auchan": the history of the company. The history of the hypermarket chain "Auchan"

The Müllier family is one of the richest in France and Europe. All over the world, they are known as the founders of hypermarkets "Auchan", whose history dates back to 1961.

However, none of the members of this family is included in 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" of 36 billion euros, there is not a single Mylie who could boast of fabulous wealth.

History of the family

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 factories producing yarn. However, the history of the Auchan store is connected with a specific representative of this family - Gerard Müller (junior). He was born in 1931 in Roubaud. Since he was the first-born, then, according to family traditions, he was given the name of his father (Gerard).

The family business was in constant development. However, after the Second World War, Gerard Sr. began to understand that in addition to production, it is necessary to invest money in other industries. At that time, retail trade began to develop . This industry was much simpler and more profitable than production. The first investment of the family Müller in the opening of the store was a failure.

Features of business organization of this family

Thanks to the strong zeal of Gerard Jr. to work, the Müllier family decided to expand their own business. At that time, Gerard was quite successful in moving up the career ladder. In 1958, he became a sales director. At that time in the family there was an agreement according to which each member of the family received an equal share in absolutely all enterprises that belonged to Müller.

Another important feature is the fact that the family has never taken any partners from outside. It was a peculiar tradition of Müller.

Prerequisites for the opening of the first store "Auchan"

The history of the creation of the first store of this trade network originates somewhat later. At that time, production remained the main business of the Müller 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, Mühl-Sr. traveled to the city of Dayton to participate in a seminar organized by a company that was looking for buyers precisely among the French retail chains for the commissioning of special cash registers (ECK prototypes). The seminar was conducted by B. Trurio, known as a fierce supporter of self-service stores. He urged not only to reduce the cost of personnel serving customers in the hall, but also to reduce prices within the limits of economy. Also, the hypermarket "Auchan" was among the first to "organize" an adjacent parking lot, thanks to which buyers can come to cars for shopping.

Opening of the first store

Inspired by new ideas, Gerard Sr. sent a son to this seminar, who immediately becomes an ardent supporter of such a new form of trading activities. Thus, the first Auchan store was opened, the history of which is described in our review.

Already at that time Mulieu realized what exactly the supermarkets are for the future. He decided to try to open the Auchan hypermarket in France, which later became the symbol of business France, which made the Müllier family even more rich.

The birth of the Auchan network

The history of creation took its start in July 1961, when the first store was opened. For family tragedies, all representatives of Müller received identical 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 mistrust with which they reacted to this idea in the family. Accordingly, the allocated financial resources for this branch of business was not enough.

Therefore, the history of "Auchan" is connected with the name of the industrialist Michel Segard, who invested about 600 thousand francs (50% of the company's share) in this trading network. And this was contrary to the principles of the Müller family.

The first setbacks in trading

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 unfavorable 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 big as it is now. Therefore, the amount of losses was a colossal sum for him.

During this period the Mühlier family began to think about closing the Auchan store. The history of the company might not have taken place, but for the wisdom of the head of the family. On the development of this area of business, he gave his son three years.

However, Gerard Sr. was the only one put forward - the way out of the Segar partnership. It is already known that the family Mulye did not recognize the partnership from the outside.

The flourishing of the chain of stores "Auchan"

These three years for Gerard Jr. were not in vain. He quite successfully began to learn from experienced salesmen who told him how to properly lay out the goods, as well as the rules for applying discounts on products. These tips were of high value to a novice entrepreneur.

Important to gain experience in retailing 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 mark-up.

The success of Auchan stores today is connected with the cheapness of goods sold. The first huge hypermarket with a total area of 12 thousand square meters. Meters with this name was opened in 1967 in Ronka.

Merchandising is an important part of retail stores

With the development of this network of shops, merchandising has also developed actively. Trading platforms actively took into account all the innovations in the trade.

In 1977, there were such innovations as the bonuses paid to employees in the shares of this company. Thus, as a result, 17% of the shares in the Auchan store were in the hands of the workers.

Since 1981, the active expansion of the chain of stores around the world begins. In total there are more than 1100 supermarkets in 12 states with 186 thousand employees and corresponding turnover (not less than 37 billion euros).

The first hypermarket in Russia was opened in 2002 in Mytishchi near Moscow. To date, on the territory of our country opened about 4 supermarkets and 15 hypermarkets.

However, family traditions continue to persist, and the members of the Müllier family all also have equal shares in each company.

The name "Auchan" received from the French name of the area where Gerard Mulieu Jr. was born. In French, "O Sham" is pronounced. The same name was worn by the first opened supermarket in Russia. However, taking into account the peculiarities of Russian linguistics, the company was re-registered in "Auchan".

In 2006, the founder of the chain of stores has already moved away from management. However, he continues to actively participate in the affairs of the company in his 83rd year.

Thus, with the example of the Auchan chain of stores, one can see that only patience and dedication help a beginning businessman to actively develop his business. It is necessary to remember about such an important moment as studying the experience of other similar enterprises so as not to repeat their mistakes.