Close. Proximity. Loyalty. At the end of December, when Michel-Édouard Leclerc made his very first trip to the grand duchy since the takeover of the country’s 27 Cora, Match and Smatch shops by the brand that his father created in the late 1940s, he decided to stand shoulder to shoulder with Serge Febvre during a quick, relaxed press conference with Luxembourg journalists.
Febvre was seated to the right of the boss, his cheeks flushed with a smile, more discreet than his ultra-media-friendly boss, yet at the centre of attention in his capacity as owner of the large Leclerc hypermarket in Thionville, but above all as chairman of Scapest, one of the cooperative networks’s 16 purchasing and logistics centres in France. As such, he was at the helm from one end of the negotiation process to the other with the Louis Delhaize group, via the Bouriez family, owners of the shops being sold.
Working his way to the top
Leclerc and Febvre have known each other for a long time. At 61, Febvre is a pure product of the Leclerc stable, where he has worked his way up from the bottom of the ladder to the top. He discovered mass retailing by chance. The son of a modest farming family in the Haute-Marne region of eastern France, he owes it to his sister, who at the time ran a location in Langres (about 250km south of Luxembourg City, in the Haute-Marne département), who got him through the doors of a supermarket for the first time. She took him on during the holidays, to earn a bit of money and then “party with friends”.
At the time he was in his early twenties and studying for a degree in mechanical engineering. It was professional love at first sight. Febvre was exposed to the many facets of a job where, in a single day, you jumped from one world to another, from handling to accounting to stocking shelves. Versatility is the name of the game. His CV was then built up over the next year, this time on a full-time basis, while he waited to honour his military service obligations, which he had been granted a deferment for because of his studies. “Instead of sitting behind your drawing board, come with me”, his sister told him.
In the integrated groups, it’s more complicated. There, there were no limits.
After his military service, it was back to Leclerc. It was the mid-1980s, and his sister was now based in Maizières-lès-Metz (about 50km south of Luxembourg City), where Leclerc had just acquired a new building. Everything had to be built or rebuilt. “I was passionate about it”, he remembered. The virus never left him. As he puts it, Febvre learnt the mysteries of the Leclerc network “as he went along”, his appetite whetted by the possibilities offered by its “atypical” organisation, where yesterday’s line-worker can, overnight, turn into a troop leader. “In integrated groups, it’s more complicated. Here, there were no limits.”
600 employees in Thionville
A “hard worker”, this football fan didn’t hesitate when the opportunity arose to transfer to Thionville, by taking over the management of the shop in the Linkling 2 area in 1993. He bought the store just a year later. “It was the natural thing to do. I had nothing to lose, nor did I need to contribute any money, as the system works with the sponsorship of fellow members”.
“More mathematical than literary”, he has found, in addition to “the ability to reason in an orderly fashion”, the soul of a company director. Behind the scenes, he worked on the construction of a new 6,000 square metre building (since extended three times) in the Linkling 3 area. It was inaugurated in 1999. Now, 25 years later, Febvre reigns over an empire of 600 employees.
At the same time, he became involved with Scapest, the regional purchasing group, taking charge of various areas before becoming chairman seven years ago. He travels once a week, usually on Thursdays, to the area near Châlons-en-Champagne, where the head office and colossal logistics warehouses are located. On the day we met, Luxembourg teams from the future ex-Cora, Match and Smatch stores were on site. The changeover to the Leclerc brand is imminent, and is due to take place throughout the first half of 2024.
We won’t renounce our DNA, but we’re not here to upend the market.
Luxembourg has almost always been on Febvre’s mind. “We had advanced plans about fifteen years ago.” The scenario he wanted to avoid was that of a blank page. That’s why he didn’t take up the offer of bare land from property developers. “Arriving in a country and saying, ‘Hey, I’m going to open a shop’ is very difficult for independents like us, who don’t have the backing of a group with huge resources. He was waiting for “the opportunity”. It came last year, when the Louis Delhaize Group withdrew from the grand duchy. Cora, Match and Smatch are well-known, recognised brands, with a heritage. “We’ll be looking to make any improvements we can, but we can capitalise on what already exists.”
Fast transaction
The takeover was announced during the summer. The first contacts, however, dated back “to a few weeks earlier”. The transaction moved fast. “In the retail sector, everyone knows everyone else, so we know who to contact. The sellers were in a hurry.” The amount of the transaction is being kept secret. But “it’s obviously a good deal”, since it has been concluded.
Michel-Édouard Leclerc explained it in December, and Febvre is now doing the same: while Leclerc intends to “do everything necessary to succeed”, and has no qualms about its ambition to become the future number 1 in the mass retail sector, the strategy also includes a certain modesty. The positioning will be based on prices, yes, but “without breaking the bank”. “The aim is to benchmark ourselves against the Luxembourg market, and to bring our expertise to bear on the distributor brands we have in France. We won’t deny our DNA, but we’re not here to upend the market.”
And against a backdrop of agricultural crisis in which supermarkets are often singled out for criticism, Febvre is at pains to calm things down: “The heart of success lies in working closely with manufacturers and producers. The three [sides] are pitted against each other, when in fact we need to work together. And that’s a lot easier in Luxembourg than in France, because the market is smaller there, people know each other more easily, and the demands they make of each other are the same.”
Originally published in French by and translated for Delano