Gifi in receivership: how to explain the fall of the brand?

This text corresponds to part of the transcription of the report above. Click on the video to watch it in full. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________500 stores in turmoil.

Gifi, a specialist in discounted products for the home, requested, on Friday October 23, to be placed in receivership. Sad news for customers: “I would like them to stay, I hope they will not close”; “There have always been things at attractive prices, and often for the home, they have interesting little things.” In great financial difficulty, the company has seen four managers succeed one another in less than two years without being able to turn around.

Founded in 1981, the brand experienced its golden age in the 2000s. A wide choice of decorations and equipment for the home, Gifi even appeared on the Tour de France in 2004, always carried by its slogan Gifi reassures its employees. But in recent years, difficulties have continued: a failed change of computer system, but above all increasingly tough competition. In this saturated market, Gifi was unable to navigate the shift.

“This is what happens to many old brands. It’s gentrification and blindness,” explained Yves Puget, editorial director of LSA magazine. In an internal document, the company wanted to reassure its employees: “The activity continues, your employment contracts are unchanged.

This procedure does not in itself have any immediate consequences on employment. “Management asked employees not to speak out.

Machine-translated from French