A “long-planned development”. The president of the Motier family holding company, Ginette Moulin, 97, handed over the reins of Galeries Lafayette at the end of August to her son-in-law Philippe Houzé, assisted by her grandsons Nicolas Houzé, Guillaume Houzé and Arthur Lemoine.
Ginette Moulin, president of Motier since 2005, “has expressed her wish to step down from her duties,” Galeries Lafayette said in a statement. Her objective: “to entrust more responsibilities to the fifth generation of family leaders.”
Ginette Moulin, a key figure in the family history of the Galeries Lafayette
Ginette Moulin is a fundamental part of the family history of Galeries Lafayette, having known the five generations that have succeeded one another at the helm of the iconic store on Boulevard Haussmann.
The history of the department store began in 1894, with the opening of a “novelty” store at 1 Rue Lafayette by two Alsatian Jewish cousins, Théophile Bader and Alphonse Khan.
Ginette Moulin, born on 7 February 1927, is the granddaughter of the former. She is also the daughter of Max Heilbronn, a resistance fighter deported during World War II to Buchenwald in Germany, where she met the man who would later marry her daughter, Etienne Moulin.
“Ensuring the development of the Moulins family heritage”
Philippe Houzé, who has chaired the board of directors of Galeries Lafayette since 2005 and who now succeeds Ginette Moulin as president of Motier, is the husband of Christiane, one of the Moulins’ three daughters.
The owners of Galeries Lafayette have been major shareholders in the food retail giant since 2014, although they are no longer the largest shareholders since March 2024 and Carrefour’s repurchase of 25 million of its shares from Galfa, a company owned by the Moulin family.
In this role, Philippe Houzé is vice-chairman of the Carrefour board of directors, which also includes Patricia Moulin Lemoine, the eldest daughter of Ginette Moulin. Three of Ginette Moulin’s grandchildren have also been appointed vice-chairmen of Motier: Nicolas Houzé, Guillaume Houzé and Arthur Lemoine.
The former succeeds his father as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Galeries Lafayette, with the aim of “defining and deploying the strategic vision of the group.” This, “with the assistance of the Board of Directors composed of Guillaume Houzé, Arthur Lemoine and Ugo Supino, with the desire to continue and accelerate the transformation initiated in recent years.”
A period of uncertain health crisis
This development has been “prepared for a long time”, the group assures. It is the end of a turbulent sequence for the family group, which suffered for several years from the consequences of the Covid-19 epidemic on international activity.
Indeed, the epidemic and the various travel restrictions have deprived him of a large part of his clientele, when his business was not simply hampered by the various lockdowns of 2020 and 2021.
In mid-June, the group expected to return to its 2019 sales of €3.85 billion in 2024 under the brand. The group, which is celebrating its 130th anniversary this year, has achieved €3.6 billion in sales under the brand in 2023, of which €1.9 billion will come from the Boulevard Haussmann store alone.
In particular, in 2023 it sold the famous Bazar de l’Hôtel de Ville (BHV) to a small Lyon real estate company, the Société des Grands Magasins (SGM), in order to “concentrate [ses] human and financial efforts in [sa] “brand of the heart,” Nicolas Houzé said in June.
Source: BFM TV
