Thursday, March 21, 2019 Piscines Desjoyaux, France’s leading manufacturer of in-ground pools, is expanding abroad via an extensive network of importers or its own subsidiaries.
Que de chemin parcouru depuis la première piscine Desjoyaux, creusée en 1966 par Jean Desjoyaux, père et grand-père des dirigeants actuels, pour ses propres enfants !
Today, the family empire boasts some 160 sales outlets and showrooms in France, and around 400 abroad, in 80 countries. The company’s international expansion began in the late 1980s. “At that time, we expanded mainly in countries where we had managed to find good partners, such as Egypt and the Czech Republic,” explains Nicolas Desjoyaux, Export Director and son of the current CEO. The downside of this strategy: “We were absent from other markets, even though they offered great potential”.
The company, which posted sales of 91.9 million euros in 2018, also suffered from its operations in Greece, Spain and Egypt, three countries shaken by political upheavals and the 2008 financial crisis.
“We therefore decided to diversify our presence in other countries around the world,” explains Nicolas Des Joyaux, who has set himself a target of 100 international openings in four years.
Connaître parfaitement le marché local
Heading for the USA, Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany and China! This time with a well-oiled tactic. In these strategically important countries (the United States and Brazil are among the top markets for swimming pools), Desjoyaux opens its own subsidiaries to recruit as many dealers as possible. For other countries, such as Israel, Turkey, Hungary and Georgia, which are less easily accessible, the family business works through exclusive importers. They are responsible for recruiting franchisees with an entrepreneurial profile, 25,000 to 40,000 euros in equity capital and good interpersonal skills. “Swimming pools are not a commodity, and you have to make people want to buy them,” stresses Nicolas Desjoyaux. These importers, like headhunters, need to know the local market inside out.
“We don’t rule out recruiting French dealers based abroad, provided they have been established there for a long time and know the country inside out”, says the Export Manager. Professionals from competing networks, however, are not welcome: “We prefer our partners to be free of any preconceived ideas about swimming pools”. To stand out on the world market, Desjoyaux relies on its historic innovations, such as monobloc structures and pipe-free filtration systems, or its more recent creations, such as kit pools and wooden above-ground pools. The company, based in La Fouillouse, near Saint-Etienne, is also playing on its made-in-France image, its best card for staying one step ahead.
Christophe Dutheil – L’EXPRESS