Korvettes

"So the Willot brothers bought Boussac without spending a penny. The price (700 million francs) was paid for by several asset sales, including the daily newspaper L'Aurore, sold to Robert Hersant. For the rest, the prey financed its predator. In three years, Boussac would bring them more than 600 million francs. They are rich. They are boastful. With Dior, they dress princesses and stars. The establishment can no longer despise them. They could stop there, make their group a model of good management relying more on operating profits than exceptional capital gains, stop walking the tightrope and living on credit. But have you ever seen a hamster stop nibbling? Jean-Pierre Willot, the most ambitious of the quartet, decides to strike again. Two months after Boussac, he buys the Korvettes chain of department stores in the United States. Crêpe Willot has become a multinational corporation."

"Korvettes is losing a lot of money. The American banks that have supported it so far do not trust the new management. Jean-Pierre Willot, who is leading the operation, has delegated Alain Mathieu to rectify the situation. He is on the ground at the beginning of 1979 and begins a painstaking slimming down process. This is accomplished in record time. Loss-making stores are closed or disposed of, and the workforce is reduced from 12,000 to 3,000 people."

"At the same time as taking over and integrating the Boussac group, the Willot brothers tackle other, equally complex projects: successfully restructuring the Galeries Anspach and Korvettes and splitting the distribution activities from the industrial ones, in order to prepare a hosting structure that will accommodate all industrial activities."

"Apart from the petty political considerations mentioned above, two main reasons can explain the brothers' descent into hell. The decision to acquire Galeries Anspach and especially Korvettes was a huge strategic error."

"understand that they can get a better deal from the liberal tide. ". Indeed, time works for them. The trials they have initiated against the lease management contract and its implementing acts delay all proposals for solutions in their case. The liabilities of companies under judicial settlement are frozen. The resolution of bad businesses, Korvettes and Galeries Anspach, is now behind them. Additionally, the solvent subsidiaries: Confo-rama, Au Bon Marché, la Belle Jardinière and especially Christian Dior significantly improve their performance and increase their value accordingly."

"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."

"Finally, for the detriment of Dior, the seizing by BSF of a part of the capital gains realized on the sale of the SCI owning the Dior buildings on Avenue Montaigne as well as the issuance of two checks of 1,500,000 and 1,200,000 francs intended for a fund transfer to the United States for Korvettes."