ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

The third largest cleaning company in France, Groupe Nicollin, is expanding in the west of the country and has invested in a football stadium - writes ECJ’s reporter there Christian Bouzols.

A year after the death of the company’s former boss, Louis Nicollin, who was an emblematic figure in France, Groupe Nicollin, now managed by Louis’ son Olivier, took over Vidimus, a company specialising in industrial cleaning. Founded in 2000, Vidimus has 339 full time equivalent employees generating a turnover of about €10 million.

The purpose of this takeover was to allow France’s third largest cleaning enterprise to strengthen its presence in the field of industrial cleaning and expand its geographical coverage. It meant a development of its activities in Brittany and in the South-West of France. Luc Bonneau, a main shareholder of Vidimus, was to remain in the new entity as regional manager.

An unusual side to Groupe Nicollin is its interest in sports. Among other ventures outside cleaning, it has invested in football, particularly in Montpellier, which is the company’s home town. Louis Nicollin’s other son, Laurent, is chairman of Montpellier’s football club, currently playing in the first league of French football.

It is in this context that Groupe Nicollin is about to invest heavily in the building of a new football stadium in Montpellier, which is planned to hold 25,000 to 30,000 seats and to be operational for the 2022-2023 season. The current stadium is considered to be obsolete and has access problems. The future stadium will cost between €150 and €180 million, of which 65 per cent will be supplied by Groupe Nicollin and some private partners, and 35 per cent by a cluster of local authorities known as Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole and some public partners.

Groupe Nicollin has 5,000 workers and a €320 million turnover. It is essentially a family business structured as four divisions respectively dedicated to waste management and urban cleaning, water management and sanitation, industrial cleaning and safety, and events and hospitality.

It is a remarkable example of successful diversification, undertaken by a group very much concerned with preserving its provincial identity and whose growth took place far from Paris.