Antoine Willot

"Antoine Willot continues to develop his business of selling textile factories "with products in hand", that is to say including staff training and the ramping up to full operational capacity of the units sold. Three important agreements will be concluded with the Algerian government for the creation of three integrated textile complexes in M'Sila, Akbou, and Arris. These operations will be very profitable thanks to the expertise of Antoine Willot and the engineers of the group and thanks to the purchasing power he has with major textile equipment manufacturers: SACM, Sulzer, Picanol, Schlafhorst, Rieter, etc. These investments also make it possible to improve the purchasing conditions of these materials for the group's factories."

"In this month of August 1978, the brothers and their collaborators work tirelessly on the elements of the Boussac file that the judicial representatives have kindly given them. Antoine Willot visits all the factories at lightning speed. The accounts of the various companies are audited by the firm Jacques Vigne. The group's real estate assets are identified and valued. All this work leaves little time for summer vacations... A takeover offer is made by the brothers through letters dated 3, 9, and 17 August."

"Jean-Pierre Willot and his brother Antoine, resigned, can only accept them. First, a buyer must be found for Dior. Then, it is necessary to realize, within two months, 100 million francs of divestments. The sale of the shares of Compagnie de Navigation Mixte for 37 million francs, acquired piecemeal by Jean-Pierre Willot, and the execution of a lease-back operation on the Boussac headquarters on rue Poissonnière for 64 million should enable this to be achieved."

"It is in the garment activity that the slope is the hardest to climb. Interviewed by Le Point (issue of January 26, 1981), Jean-Pierre and Antoine Willot explain: "The Blainville factory (Blizzand raincoats and sportswear), a former flagship of the Boussac group, is the very example of the laxity that has settled in: instead of manufacturing products based on market trends... it served as an outlet for upstream manufactured products. This single factory accounted for a third of the group’s garment activity losses."

"The court will remind that the principles set by a ruling of the Court of Cassation of February 4, 1985 state: "The interest of the group is defined as a common interest distinct from the interest of the dominant company and inseparable from the particular interest of the member companies. If the collective interest conflicts with the singular interest of a company, it is the latter that must prevail when the group's strategy exposes it to a risk to which it should not normally be exposed." Consequently, it was necessary to verify if, within the Agache-Willot group, subsidiaries like Dior, Conforama, Au bon Marché, or la Belle Jardinière had not suffered impoverishment by BSF or SFFAW, without possibility of compensation. Thus, the court will convict Jean-Pierre, Antoine, Bernard, and Régis Willot of misuse of corporate assets and credit for the benefit of Korvettes and to the detriment of Conforama, Bon Marché, and Dior."

"They were also creators and investors. The entire hygiene sector and the Peaudouce and Nana brands were created from scratch by Antoine Willot. This activity allowed for the conversion of a number of textile factories, which would have inevitably been doomed to close. At the time of the brothers' departure, the hygiene business accounted for nearly 40% of BSF's revenue and, thanks to its profitability, Bernard Arnault was able to sell it in 1988 for 1.7 billion francs to a Swedish group... But the financial resources needed to implement their policy were severely lacking."