Surprise. Sunday, December 17, among the demonstrators massed in front of the Casino headquarters in Saint-Etienne, descendants of the founder, Geoffroy Guichard, responded to the inter-union’s call. “That the family lost a lot of money is unfortunate, but the most important thing is the staff. We want to show employees that the family is with them”explains Laurent Guichard, great-grandson of the Saint-Etienne grocer who started from nothing one hundred and twenty-five years ago, when it opened its first branch in 1898.
Some might believe that the links between Casino and the Guichards were dissolved in 1997, when Jean-Charles Naouri recovered the majority of the capital, following a public offer launched with the blessing of Antoine Guichard, the last of the name to have managed the distributor. However, if the Guichard-Perrachon house has changed hands, the attachment of the clan has remained. “We have been immersed in this environment all our lives”relates Stéphanie de Senneville, another descendant.
“My father, who was also called Geoffroy, was Antoine’s younger brother, he had been a member of the Casino supervisory board. He passed on to us the social and moral values of our ancestor. And then he always asked us where we did our shopping. He only wanted us to go to Casino”she recalls, before adding: “One day, I wanted to sell some Casino shares that I had inherited, I thought my father was going to have a heart attack. Then, I kept most of my titles. I wanted to pass them on to my children. I’m glad Dad isn’t here to see this anymore. I feel very sorry for him. »
“I feel sad as if I had lost someone close to me”
Not all cousins, nieces, great-grandchildren, of course, grew up in the family hagiography, but certain branches were rocked by “The Memoirs of Geoffroy Guichard”have hung old posters of the brand on the walls and kept their Casino titles like family jewels to be passed down from generation to generation. “Most of us have kept the shares we have inherited as property to pass on to our children. I almost didn’t touch it, even when the group started to go bad”says Théodore Guichard, a forty-year-old who chairs the family association bringing together the descendants of the founder and his seven children: at the last meeting, this summer, there were 200 of them.
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