There were celebrations on Friday night at Galeries Lafayette, marking five years since its takeover by partners Philippe Sempéré of Planet Indigo and Nicolas Chambon of Shop Invest. Numerous partners, customers and friends attended the friendly gathering, after a day of entertainment. In 2016, making an annual loss of one million euros, the department store in Béziers was ranked 13th out of the chain’s 17 stores and was on the verge of closing, along with two others. The other two have now closed, while the one in Béziers has been revived thanks to the city council, which temporarily bought the premises and looked for partners who could relaunch the business. A winning bet, as Nicolas Chambon pointed out: three years later, growth had reached 35% and sales had risen from €4.8m to €6.5m. Financial equilibrium was restored. In 2020, the Béziers store ranked 2nd in the group behind La Rochelle. Chanel has returned to Béziers, a symbol of the store’s success and of the French art of living championed by Galeries Lafayette, if ever there was one. The two partners, described as “serial entrepreneurs” by Alain Di Crescenzo, President of the Occitanie Chamber of Commerce and Industry, are delighted with the result, and vow to achieve sales of €9-10m in five years’ time. Today, as initially promised, Shop Invest has bought the premises from the city council. All the speakers, including the Mayor, Robert Ménard, and his Deputy, Emmanuelle Ménard, praised the success of this “flagship store” for Béziers city centre, which has been transformed and is open for business.
