2023-11-21 13:09:12
Paris (AFP) – Their goal is to prepare the group “for the fifth generation”: Joy and Alexandre Barrière are turning the page on an eventful episode at the end of which they took the reins of France’s leading casino operator following their father Dominique Desseigne.
Published on: 11/21/2023 – 2:09 p.m. Modified on: 11/21/2023 – 2:08 p.m.
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“What we want is to follow in the footsteps of the three generations of entrepreneurs and builders who preceded us, being worthy of them and in particular of our mother. And to ensure that the group continues to exist for the fifth generation and that it finds its way back to growth,” explains Alexandre Barrière, 36, to AFP.
The family group, founded in 1912, includes 32 casinos, 19 luxury hotels and more than 150 restaurants and bars, including Fouquet’s on the Champs-Elysées, for a total turnover of 1.3 billion euros.
At the end of a long battle with their father relayed in the press in recent months, the children of Dominique Desseigne, 79 years old, and Diane Barrière, heir to the group who died in 2001, took over the reins in April 2023 and bought 100% shares of the Lucien Barrière group this summer.
The Barrière casino in Deauville in September 2011 © DAMIEN MEYER / AFP/Archives
“One of the areas that is important to us is staying close to the field,” says Joy Desseigne-Barrière, 33, who began her career in London before joining the group where she began with an “immersion” in La Rochelle casino.
Since their appointment, the young managers have been making site visits to meet the group’s nearly 7,000 employees, some of whom knew “their mother and grandfather”, which “reinforces their feeling of responsibility”, according to Alexandre.
“We may have a different role within the company, but we have not changed and we do not want our close relationships to change,” he confides, “we must not forget that “ +on the most beautiful throne in the world we only ever sit on our ass+”.
Among their priority, accelerate internationalization “by favoring quality over quantity” particularly in the Middle East, where they are established in Dubai and Abu Dhabi with Fouquet’s breweries. “For the record, Tom Cruise stayed another day because he absolutely wanted to eat the hamburgers at Fouquet’s” in Abu Dhabi, he assures.
The Fouquet’s restaurant, April 21, 2020 in Paris © FRANCK FIFE / AFP/Archives
Another priority: digital, including the test launch of an application “which allows customers to enter a casino, follow the news and pay”, explains his sister, who specializes in data.
“Thanks to the data we collect, we will be able to make more predictions and better understand the (slot machine) models that work” in order to “make more targeted investments”.
Knowing that the purchase of slot machines can represent up to 20 million euros per year. The group must also invest in the renovation of its establishments, which it owns.
“Nothing is for sale”
On the financial side, “we are confident for the future”, indicates the manager, assuring that the group’s debt is “completely reasonable”.
Opportunity for him to remind us that “nothing is for sale”: “we have received completely surreal offers” but “we do not sell our soul”.
“We were pioneers and now it’s up to us to catch up. The resort model was in Deauville long before being in Las Vegas, that’s what makes us strong,” he believes.
Joy Desseigne-Barriere (l) and her brother Alexandre Barrière, November 8, 2023 in Paris © JOEL SAGET / AFP
The objective is now to “move upmarket on the hotel side and improve the customer experience on the casino side”, summarizes Joy.
They say they are against the legalization of the online casino offer in France: “if it has to open, it is according to the JADE model”, an experimental device where the virtual casino is a double of the real casino, believes Alexandre.
“The casino is not just gambling, it is also an experience. It is leisure time that we make available,” explains Joy, specifying that the casino sector employs around 20,000 intermittent workers. of the show per year in France.
They offer “break times” for players which make the on-site offer “less addictive” than the online offer.
© 2023 AFP
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