SGM, co-founded by Frédéric Merlin, announced on Tuesday June 16 that it was selling the BHV Marais business to the “management team” of the Parisian department store, which decided to “end” the criticized partnership with Shein, a “strategic error”.
The Société des department stores (SGM), which has operated the BHV Marais since 2023, accepted the proposal made by Karl-Stéphane Cottendin, former general director of BHV and the SGM group, who left his position for the occasion and wants to reposition the department store on the home (decoration, DIY, etc.), announced the two parties.
This announcement also concerns the BHV Parly 2 in Yvelines, but not the seven provincial BHVs (formerly Galeries Lafayette), still managed by SGM and five of which welcomed the ultra-ephemeral Asian fashion brand Shein within their walls this year.
The opening in November, at the Bazar de l’Hôtel de Ville, in the heart of Paris, of the first permanent physical store in the colors of Shein, a platform accused of destroying French commerce, sparked an outcry. And accelerated the flight of brands (Dior, Sandro, Guerlain, etc.) burned by unpaid debts or unhappy with the arrival of the Asian giant.
“A strategic error”
This “experiment” was “a strategic error”, recognizes seven months later Karl-Stéphane Cottendin, for whom Shein will “ideally” have left the BHV Marais by Christmas.
Accompanied by the marketing director of BHV Marais, Valérie Chaleyssin, the artistic director Medy Ty and the HR director Élodie Nho, the former right-hand man of Frédéric Merlin, at the origin of this takeover, intends to refocus the BHV Marais “on its historic core business: home, DIY, decoration, furniture, lighting, culinary, tableware, household linen, creative hobbies, household appliances, bedding, bookstore, etc. », According to a press release.
“A significant part of the capital of the new structure” created for the occasion “will be open to all BHV employees”, of which there are around 700 in Paris. Acknowledging having made “mistakes”, Frédéric Merlin praised to the press “a real project of effective recovery by serious people”.
“This store was supposed to close” before its purchase from Galeries Lafayette, “I fought to try to keep it alive” but “the operation was derailed”, with the failure of the purchase by SGM of the premises of BHV Marais, owned since January by the Canadian fund Brookfield, he explained.
