FNAC

The Fnac , (in the past “National federation of purchases of the executives”, then following its opening to the general public “National federation of purchases”) is a store chain specialized in the distribution of cultural products (Musique, Littérature, Cinéma, Video game) and electronic (Hi-fi, Informatique, Télévision).

Short history

It was founded in France in 1954 by André Essel (1918 - 2005) and max Théret, two former militants Marxist with tendency Trotskiste (the second was the bodyguard of Trotsky).

It was at the time a place where the executives came to buy their cinematographic material and photographic. Gradually the rays were packed with the appearance of the Photo, of the radio S and Magnétophone S, of the disc S, the books in 1974, and the CD.

Repurchased in 1985 by GMF and directed by Michel Baroin, it forms part of the French group today Pinault Printemps Redoute, created by François Pinault in 1963, which it joined following an acquisition of a holding in its capital in 1994 then in its repurchase in 1996. The consolidated turnover of Fnac was in 2006 of 4,538 billion euro. Its current president is Denis Olivennes. The September 27th 2006, of the rumors implied that the group PR would seek to sell the FNAC for 2 billion euros, rumors contradicted by the direction of the group PR.

Presentation

It is the leader of the distribution of cultural products and leisures in France, Belgium, Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal and in Brazil.

One also finds many electronic devices general public there, as well as contents Multimédia. Its offer is articulated around six types of products: delivers S, discs, Micro-informatique, its, Vidéo, Photographie.

It conceived its reputation in particular around its proposed services with the customers: tests of the products by its Laboratories Tests , service photo development, services of sale of voyages, tickets in concerts, spectacles and events. For ticketting, Fnac, French leader of the distribution of ticketting general public, are pressed partly on its joint venture with Carrefour, the company France Ticket.

Some Fnac stores are more specific to the distribution of a type of products, like the " Fnac Digitale" in the district of St-Germain to Paris, specialized in data processing, the audio visual and the video games; Fnac Music Bastille, specialized in the universe of the music with a number of extremely important referred CD (and which have just opened a very large ray readers MP3, cameras numerical, video games and consoles) or the " Fnac awakening & jeux" , specialized in the distribution of plays resulting from the catalog of Mail-order selling Awakening & plays, itself in the group PR. These shops are often not very distant geographically from a Fnac store.

Facts and figures

In September 2007, Fnac had 72 stores in 56 towns of France, and 48 sales outlets distributed in 8 countries (12 in Spain, 7 in Belgium, 8 with the Portugal, 6 with the Brésil, 6 in Italy, 4 in Suisse, 2 with Taiwan and 1 in Greece), of a site of online shopping or Trader site “ Fnac.com ” and of a store of music downloading, vidéos, video games and software on line, FnacMusic.

Moreover, it is also necessary to add the 5 Surcouf stores (Haussman and Daumesnil in Paris, Beautiful-Spine, Bordeaux and Strasbourg) and the surcouf.com trader site.

In 2006, Fnac envisages the opening of 12 stores abroad: 7 in Spain, 1 in Belgium and 1 in Portugal. At the horizon 2008, the company also hopes to open 6 new stores in Brazil, 4 in Italy and 2 in Switzerland. In 2006, the company envisages to carry out 25% of sound Turnover abroad.

In France, the Fnac group lately still increased with for example a new opening on April 25th, 2007 with Aix-en-Provence, close to the Cours Mirabeau, at 5 minutes of the old city.

Since recently, FNAC open in periphery cities like the stores Toulouse Labège, Grenoble Echirolles, Thiais Village, followed by Bordeaux and Vannes in 2007, generally in the shopping malls of hypermarkets. These stores " FNAC périphérie" , in a style resembling that of the supermarkets more that with the usual stores in downtown area, must develop with 15 openings envisaged over 5 years. November 30th, 2007, 4 other new stores open simultaneously: Creil (60), Villebon-sur-Yvette (91), Gennevilliers (92) and Herblay (95).

Always in 2006, its main competitors in France was the distributer Virgin Megastore for the cultural products and Darty for the technical products.

The Discount card Fnac is the first proprietary card of France, with 2 million carriers. This chart allows inter alia profiting from various handing-over:

- - 5% permanent on the books, data processing, the audio-visual, the photo developments, the insurances and accessories.

- To gain accounts - checks - gifts of 10€ for the purchase of CD, DVD, vynils, consumable and video games.

- To have handing-over on the places of concerts, spectacles and exposures.

- To pay purchases in 3 times without expenses, in Fnac and in the other ensigns of the Group PR (Spring, Conforama, Redoute, Surcouf…).

- To be invited has previews and cultural events.

Big events and recent

New tariff policy Frenchwoman 2007: the new direction of Fnac made the decision to hold for its members his famous handing-over of 5%, permitted by the Loi Lang, on all the books in its stores starting from January 29th, 2007. Fnac thus imitates to it quasi totality of its competitors. On the fnac.com site, this handing-over of 5% is offered to everyone, even with the people who do not have the discount card.

New wages policy in 2007 with for the first time in the history of Fnac a plan of reclassification of approximately 1000 paid, including approximately 300 administrative initially then record dealers, because of the negative trends in the market of the disc, not compensated for the moment by the very positive evolution of the remote loading via FnacMusic.

the group also has just launched a new Web site, Fnac Live. This site gathers all the vidéos turned at the time of the events proceeding in the Fnac stores, but also the vidéos " people; lambdas" who wish to make a video whose subject touches closely or by far the universe of Fnac, the culture and new technologies. There are also podcasts and blogs.

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