DMC
Strategic Concepts & Mechanics
Primary Evidence
"Bernard Arnault writes: "I will personally ensure the management of CBSF and will proceed with the implementation of the industrial and social plan as communicated to competent authorities. I will have the assistance of Mr. Julien Charlier who will serve as both my advisor and a member of the CBSF board of directors. Mr. Charlier could only become a corporate officer of CBSF if he ceased to be a corporate officer of DMC. A technical cooperation agreement will be concluded between DMC and CBSF. Finally, Mr. Willot will, of course, not take any part in the management of CBSF and will no longer hold any executive positions within the company or the group.""
"The Agache-Willot group indeed had, with its retail subsidiaries, Conforama and Le Bon Marché, its real estate companies: Belle Jardinière, its industrial real estate, its 4,500 homes, and its exceptional properties such as the Mivoisin estate, a considerable asset base generating significant income and free of mortgages. Indeed, 70% of the capital of the Conforama and Dior companies had been pledged to the banks since August 1980, but the direct competitors of the group, like DMC or the Prouvost group, are in an economic and financial situation that is hardly more brilliant without having such a considerable mass of assets."
"Other major French textile groups are also struggling: DMC, Prouvost-Masurel, Devanlay-Recoing, to name a few, are carrying out serious staff reductions."
"To avoid futile competition, mergers with groups like DMC could have been concluded."
""For the unions, the role of the 'providential' textile operator, Julien Charlier, remains unclear. How will relations with DMC, the competing group he leads, be organized? A joint statement was published on December 18 by Mr. Arnault and Mr. Mayer, to announce and comment on the event: "...The intention expressed from the beginning by the public authorities was to create favorable conditions for the reintegration of industrial activities within a group destined to develop within the private sector framework. The interest shown by several industrial and financial groups in the takeover demonstrated that this objective had been achieved thanks to the action led over the past three years by CBSF, with the support of the public authorities."