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", the history of which has been stretching since 1961.
This family has its own history sinceancient 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 Mulieu (junior). He was born in 1931 in the town of 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. The given branch was much easier and more favorable in comparison with manufacture. The first investment of the family Müller in the opening of the store was a failure.
Thanks to the strong zeal of Gerard Jr. to work, the Müllier family decided to expand their own business.
Another important feature is the fact that the family has never taken any partners from outside. It was a peculiar tradition of Müller.
The history of the first store of this tradenetwork begins a little later. At that time, production remained the main business of the Müllier 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.
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 in that period, Mulieu realized what exactlysupermarkets the future. He decided to try to open the Auchan hypermarket in France, which later became a symbol of business France, which made the Müllier family even more rich.
The history of creation took its start in July 1961,when the first store was opened. For family tragedies, all representatives of Müller 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 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 family Müller.
Due to the lack of experience in retailTrade in young entrepreneurs was committed a large number of errors, 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 big as it is now. Therefore, the amount of losses was a colossal sum for him.
During this period, the family Mühlie already began to think,to close the Auchan store. The history of the company could 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-elders put forward the only condition - the exit from the Segar partnership. It is already known that the family Mulye did not recognize the partnership from the outside.
These three years for Gerard Jr. were not in vain.He quite successfully began to learn from experienced sales people 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.
The success of Auchan stores is still 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.
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, an active expansion of the networkshops around the world. 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" was received from the Frenchthe 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 the management. However, he continues to actively participate in the company's affairs in his 83rd year.
Thus, the example of the network of shops "Auchan"you 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.
