Big-hearted boss loses millions to sell up to his staff

Eric Belile, 56, opted against selling La Générale de Bureau­tique shops to a larger office supplies firm – missing out on a €4million dividend – because it would have meant redundancies among his 40 staff.

He told The Connexion: “I was thinking about the future and was receiving offers for the company, but I couldn’t have built it without my staff, so turning the company over to the employees was really just motivated by loyalty to them.”
After arriving in Nantes, Loire-Atlantique in 1962 as a political refugee from north Africa, he worked with a copier company before leaving to set up his own business. It now has four offices in Brittany and Pays-de-le-Loire with a turnover of €8million.

He agreed with five of the management staff to sell the business as part of a ‘leveraged buy-out’. “The company has taken a loan, guaranteed by me, in order to give 49% of it to the employees. I have contracted to stay for another seven years to ensure the loan is paid off, and then the workers will take out another loan to buy out the remaining 51% and I will leave.”

He said for the past 30 years he always tried to keep staff and motivate them. “I always had a management style based on human values, so it’s actually part of my approach.
“This new style is much more profitable, because people are more productive. We increased turnover by 25% in 2016.”