Operator News

France – Groupe Lucien Barrière is once again 100 per cent family-owned

By Phil - 1 August 2023

Barrière, the French, family-owned group with over 100 years of history, has begun a new chapter, following the appointments of Alexandre Barrière and Joy Desseigne-Barrière as Chairs of the Group. Together, they represent the fourth generation of entrepreneurs at the helm of the Group, since its creation by François André in 1912.

The new Co-Chair governance is buying out the shares owned by Fimalac since 2011, and shares the ambition of developing and diversifying the Group’s activities, upholding the values which made its strength for more than a century now.

“We are aware of our responsibilities and intend to assume them. We will do everything which is necessary to be worthy of the three generations that preceded us, and to make our 7,000 colleagues even prouder to work for Barrière, this French century-old family-owned group. It is what decided us to proceed to the buyout of the shares owned by Fimalac”, commented Joy Desseigne-Barrière and Alexandre Barrière.

This new governance structure is supported by a change in the company’s shareholding, with the buyout of the 40 per cent interest owned by Fimalac since 2011 in the Groupe Lucien Barrière (GLB). As of today, Alexandre Barrière and Joy Desseigne-Barrière own the entire share capital of Groupe Lucien Barrière (GLB). In addition, the buy-out agreement of the 10 per cent shares of the capital of Société Fermière du Casino Municipal de Cannes (SFCMC), owned by Fimalac until now, which was approved and announced on June 28 2023, was signed on July 21 2023. On this occasion, Joy Desseigne-Barrière and Alexandre Barrière would like to take this opportunity to express their warmest thanks to Marc Ladreit de Lacharriere (Fimalac) who has been unfailingly involved in the Group’s development, supporting its growth over the last ten years, and playing a decisive role in enabling Barrière’s fourth generation to write this new chapter of the family history.

Joy Desseigne-Barrière and Alexandre Barrière would also like to express their sincere gratitude to Nicolas Sarkozy, Member of the Board until 2023, whose commitment to the Group and unwavering support for the Barrière family have guaranteed stability and success. 

Born in 1987, Alexandre Barrière is Chairman of the Société de Participation Deauvillaise (SPD), the family holding company to which the Lucien Barrière Group (GLB) is attached, to which he is Chairman of the Board of Directors, and the Société Fermière du Casino Municipal de Cannes (SFCMC).

Together with his sister Joy, they are the fourth generation of entrepreneurs at the helm of the Barrière Group, a French, family-owned, century-old group. Transmitted by their mother with the duty to ensure its influence, its development, its fidelity to the values that have been its strength since 1912, they will ensure its transmission, when the time comes, to the fifth generation.

In 2014, Alexandre Barrière joined the Group’s development department. In July 2018, he was appointed Director of Transformation and was entrusted with the mission of reflecting on the emergence of new growth drivers to meet increasingly changing customer expectations. He joined the Management Committee and was asked in November 2018 to assume the additional responsibility of Managing Director Hotels & Restaurants. In early 2019, he joined the Board of Directors of GLB and SFCMC.

In May 2021, he was appointed CEO of a newly created cross-functional department in charge of strategy and development while maintaining the transformation direction. At the heart of its priorities: employee well-being, international development and digitalization. Under his leadership, the Group began a renewal of its well-being policy at work, and established itself internationally, with the opening of a first Fouquet’s hotel in New York, and two emblematic Fouquet’s breweries at the Louvre Abu Dhabi and Dubai. As part of the development of digital activities, the Group is preparing for the growth of online casinos, in the face of the emergence of pure-players and new regulatory challenges. Barrière has launched its first online casino on the Swiss market.

Born in 1990, Joy Desseigne-Barrière is Chairman of the Boards of Directors of the Société Fermière du Casino Municipal de Cannes (SFCMC) and the Société Immobilière et d’Exploitation de l’Hôtel Majestic (SIEHM).

In 2016, Ms Desseigne-Barrière decided to start her career in London. She first joined the Publicis advertising agency where she worked for the benefit of players in the world of tourism. She then joined the BVA BDRC research and consulting institute, where she worked for four years on strategic projects aimed at supporting major hotel groups in solving their challenges.

Ms Desseigne-Barrière then joined the family group on October 1, 2020 as project manager in the casino department.

Barrière operates 33 casinos with more than 6,000 slot machines, 500 electronic games, and 250 games tables. Five Casinos Barrière are among the 10 largest casinos in France. The Casino Barrière Enghien-les-Bains tops this list, and Blotzheim, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Lille also make the top 10.