The Great Recreation, Gap Francethem legal coffees are other consumer brands associated with the Girondin Michel Ohayon name through his investment company, Financière immobilière bordelaise, and its subsidiary Hermione People and Brands (HPB).
The 61-year-old businessman who has always been very discreet in the media – he did not respond to requests from AFP – found himself in spite of himself in the spotlight with the liquidation resounding of the Camaïeu ready-to-wear brand, which left more than 2,000 employees on the floor at the end of September.
It is now those of the Go Sport stores, just as numerous, who are worried regarding the financial situation of their company, which the Grenoble commercial court will examine on Monday.
Arriving in Gironde as a child from Casablanca, the son of fabric merchants, Michel Ohayon made his mark in real estate and luxury hotels.
A Bordeauxwhere he first opened a clothing store in the 1980s, then invested in commercial premises, in 1999 he became the owner of the Grand Hôtel, an emblematic place in the Gironde capital, which he renovated before reopening in 2007. His first taken from the war, seized from a large local family.
Director of the palace until 2010, Nathalie Seiler-Hayez sees ” an additional stone” brought to the influence of the city. “It was extremely visionary of him“: she is full of praise for Michel Ohayon – like all those who agree to talk regarding him.
Follower of “hard trade”
In 2005, the person concerned made a sensational entry into the Top 500 of the greatest fortunes in France, with a fortune estimated at the time at 350 million euros. In July, it was in 104th place in the Challenges magazine ranking, with 1.1 billion euros.
Also buyer of the Trianon Palace in Versailles in 2014 or the Sheraton in Roissy in 2016, Michel Ohayon was not confined to hotels. He tried in the 2000s to enter the capital of the Partouche casino group, later of the Nice Matin newspaper. He became interested in wine tourism with the purchase of a château in Saint-Emilion.
The end of the 2010s marked his appetite for the distribution sector. In 2018, he acquired around twenty Galeries Lafayette stores in the regions, before chaining the takeovers of companies at the helm of the court – Camaïeu, Gap, Go Sport – and entering the capital of the toy brand La Grande. Recess.
« We agreed very quickly that he would come to support“, recalls the CEO, Jean-Michel Grunberg, who sees in Michel Ohayon “qsomeone who reasons and decides faster than others in these professions where there is always a risk« .
Il « still believes that brick-and-mortar commerce has a certain future, provided that the stores “are centers of attractions“, abounds his longtime lawyer, Olivier Pardo.
” Too Gourmand “
In 2019, Michel Ohayon defends in a rare interview, given to Forbes magazine, the figure of the entrepreneur who “has never been admired or praised” in France, according to him, and who “now crystallizes many passions, twitches”.
This fall, the judicial liquidation of Camaïeu earned him, in fact, the anger of the employees.
« He’s someone who talks a lot but there’s not much behind it“, tackle Thierry Siwik, CGT union representative, for whom ” there was no real management of Camaïeu”. Referring to his successive takeovers, he believes that Michel Ohayon ” was too greedy« .
For Jean-Michel Grunberg, without “such a serious economic crisis situation”, HPB “would have done something great” in an “extremely upset” textile sector.
At the announcement of the referral to the Grenoble Commercial Court by the Go Sport inter-union, the parent company assured that the company’s situation was “healthy”.
But the employees, scalded by the precedent of Camaïeu, wonder regarding their fate: “Same shareholder, same effects? “.
