Conforama

In the early 1960s, Pierre and Guy Sordoillet, Jean Moll and Jacques Ragageot, supported by furniture dealers in the North and a Bordeaux manufacturer, Charles Minvielle, created a "Carrefour of furniture" by testing a discount formula in the outbuildings of an old farm in the suburbs of Lyon. In 1967, the first Conforama was opened in Saint-Priest, Rhône in a 2,500-square-metre industrial building.

In 1976, Conforama was acquired by Agache-Willot.

In 1981, the financial holding company experienced serious legal difficulties, and in 1991, Conforama was acquired by Pinault SA. Conforama set up its first commercial website in 1998.[2]

In March 2011, Conforama was sold by PPR to Steinhoff International, for a consideration of €1.2 billion.[3][4]

A Conforama store in Wallisellen, Switzerland in April 2012

In March 2016, Darty announced it had agreed to be purchased by Steinhoff for £673 million, through Conforama subsidiary.[5][6] Fnac returned with a higher offer, resulting in a bidding war between Fnac and Conforama during April 2016.[7] On 26 April, Conforama announced that it had dropped out in the battle for Darty.[8] The Fnac offer was declared unconditional on 19 July 2016, thereby allowing the takeover to be completed.[9] In September 2016, it was reported that Conforama and Casino had forged a supply purchase co-operation agreement.[10]

In April 2017, Conforama signed title sponsorship with France's Ligue 1. The deal, reportedly worth €10 million a season, started in the 2017–18 season and ended on 2019–20.[11] The next month, Conforama announced that it would take a 17% stake in the French number two in online clearance retail site Showroomprivé.fr in the amount of €157.4 million.[12] On 11 January 2018, this stake was urgently sold off on the orders of Steinhoff, which was suffering from its own accounting scandal. The proceeds of this sale to Carrefour amounted to €79m, a loss of 50%.[13]

Although the group had a net turnover of €3.4 billion in 2018, according to the parent company, they have accumulated losses of nearly €500 million ($564 million) since 2013. To that end, and to address the challenges in the retail sector, the company announced the departure of Frank Deshayes, general manager France, on 9 July 2019.[14] A major restructuring plan for 2020 that was announced in July 2019, involved the closure of 32 stores – including the chain's flagship store in Pont Neuf – and the loss of 1,900 jobs.[15][16]

In late September 2019, Conforama named Marc Ténart as the new general manager of the group.[17] Marc Ténart had formerly headed Kingfisher, the holding company of Castorama.[18][19]

In July 2020, Austrian furniture retailer XXXLutz Group acquired the 162 French branches of Conforama, through its French subsidiary BUT.[20]