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45-554: URW may refer to: Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield Union of Russian Workers United Rubber, Cork, Linoleum and Plastic Workers of America or United Rubber Workers of America, North American trade union UnReal World , survival video game Unrestricted Warfare , military strategy Urawa Station , JR East station code URW++ a typeface foundry Sop language , spoken in Papua New Guinea Topics referred to by

90-402: A 5% discount on hardware, books and various monthly offers. Fnac stores stock a range of products from audio, books, CDs, computer software and hardware, DVDs, televisions and video games. Some stores also operate services of photography and ticket sales. The company also offers a selection of more expensive consumer products positioning themselves above discount retailers. Fnac's head office

135-509: A new magazine-based buyers club. Founded 1954, Fnac was a members-only discount buyers' club, offering sharp discounts on commercial and consumer products, based on the founders' socialist principles. Their aim was to improve the lives of the workers, not through higher salaries but through lower prices. The first shop was opened in a sublet , a second-floor apartment on the rue de Sebastopol in Paris on July 31, 1954. The brand positioning of

180-587: A property investment fund set up by the Dutch asset management group Robeco in 1979, broke up into various independent listed companies covering different parts of the world. Rodamco Europe subsequently collected a portfolio primarily consisting of shopping centres and other retail spaces across 14 European countries, along with some office property in France and the Netherlands, acquiring smaller European rivals in

225-423: A shareholder meeting rejected the board's proposal to raise 3.5 billion euros ($ 4.15 billion). Dyer remained on the board but was replaced as chairman by former Unibail CEO Leon Bressler, one of a consortium of shareholders and investors who had opposed the capital increase and other proposed strategies. In January 2021, Jean-Marie Tritant was appointed chairman of the management board and chief executive officer of

270-1181: A website (fnac.pt), which was the most popular commercial website in Portugal in 2007. There are two FNAC stores in the capital Doha, one in Laguna Mall, the other one in Doha Festival City. There are 26 Fnac stores in Spain, including: Plaza Callao (Madrid), L'illa ( Barcelona ), San Agustín ( Valencia ), Triangle (Barcelona), Coso ( Zaragoza ), Bulevar ( Alicante ), Parque Principado ( Oviedo ), Diagonal Mar (Barcelona), La Cañada ( Marbella , Málaga), Plaza (Marbella, Málaga), Plaza Norte ( San Sebastián de los Reyes, Madrid ), ParqueSur ( Leganés , Madrid), Donostia ( San Sebastián ), Nueva Condomina ( Murcia ), Bilbao ( Bilbao ), Ave. de La Constitución ( Seville ), Praza de Lugo ( Corunna ), Centro Comercial Larios Centro ( Málaga ), Plaza Imperial ( Zaragoza ), Centro Comercial Rio Shopping ( Valladolid ) La Gavia (Madrid), Paseo de la Castellana (Madrid) and Centro Comercial La Morea ( Pamplona ). The headquarters

315-678: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield As of 2024, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield is the largest commercial real estate company in Europe, and is a component of the Australian ASX 50 , Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index , as well as the French CAC40 . Its portfolio consists of retail property, office buildings, and convention centers within Europe and North America. Many of its shopping centres use

360-946: Is located in Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid . As of 2018, there are six Fnac stores in Switzerland, two in Geneva, one in Lausanne , one in Fribourg , one in Conthey and one in Neuchâtel . Fnac operates two stores in Tunisia. The first one opened in 2018 in Tunis , and the second in 2019 in Sousse . Fnac operates a loyalty programme offering points that are awarded each time the card

405-414: Is presented at the till-point, for each euro spent. A membership fee applies. For every 4,000 points earned, a gift card worth €10 is issued to the card holder. As of 2008, the programme has 1.8 million members, with the loyalty card also serving as a credit card. As of 2008, there are two versions of the card, a one-year membership card or alternatively a three-year membership card. The membership card offers

450-525: The Occupied Zone in 1942, moving to Grenoble , where he took up photography as a career. After the war, he trained as a photo laboratory technician, founded his own laboratory, and later constructed the first colour-processing machine in France. In 1951, while working for the telephone company , he founded Economie Nouvelle, a membership discount buying group for products sold through participating merchants. In 1952, Théret and André Essel conceived

495-889: The Republic of Congo. Fnac operates thirteen stores in Belgium, located in Aalst, Antwerp (two stores, including one in the outskirts of Wijnegem), Bruges, Brussels (three stores), Charleroi, Ghent, Hasselt , Leuven, Louvain-La-Neuve and Liège. At the height of its popularity in Brazil, there were twelve Fnac stores. In July 2017, all Fnac operations in Brazil were transferred to Livraria Cultura . In October 2018, all shops were closed and online operations ceased. Fnac operated several stores in Italy since 2000 in cities like Bologna, Milan, and Rome. In 2014, they all closed and their ownership

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540-851: The US and the UK, for a reported price of US$ 24.8 billion. The shopping centres in Australia and New Zealand branded as Westfield and now held by Scentre Group were not acquired by Unibail. The deal was completed in June 2018, and the shopping centres owned by Unibail-Rodamco before the merger had their names modified to have the Westfield brand, with 10 flagships starting in September 2019. In November 2020, Colin Dyer resigned as supervisory-board chairman after

585-478: The Westfield brand launched by Westfield Group in 1960 and shared with Scentre Group for properties in Australia and New Zealand since 2014. Retail properties owned by Unibail-Rodamco before the merger carry the Westfield name. As of July 2022, the group owned 87 shopping centres. Unibail was founded in 1968 as a finance-leasing unit by a company called Worms & Cie . In 1991, Unibail started focusing on

630-739: The city centre of Casablanca. There are 32 Fnac stores in Portugal, including: Colombo (Lisbon), NorteShopping ( Matosinhos ), Armazéns do Chiado (Lisbon), CascaiShopping ( Cascais ), Oeiras Parque ( Oeiras ), Santa Catarina ( Porto ), Almada ( Almada ), GaiaShopping ( Gaia ), AlgarveShopping ( Albufeira ), Intermarche ( Lagos ), Forum Coimbra ( Coimbra ), MadeiraShopping ( Madeira ), Braga Parque ( Braga ), Alegro ( Alfragide ), Palácio do Gelo ( Viseu ), MarShopping-IKEA ( Matosinhos ), Vasco da Gama (Lisbon), GuimarãeShopping ( Guimarães ), LeiriaShopping ( Leiria ), Lisbon Airport (Lisbon), Alegro Setúbal ( Setúbal ), Fórum Montijo ( Montijo ), Fórum Évora ( Évora ), UBBO ( Amadora ) and Amoreiras Shopping (Lisbon). Also

675-640: The company added its 45th French store, while a second Spanish store, in Barcelona was opened in 1996. In 1995, the Fnac store was closed in Berlin and the company instead continued its international expansion in Belgium, which were now becoming profitable. In October 1996, the new parent company assumed full control of the Belgian affiliate and announced plans to double the number of stores in Belgium that began with

720-518: The company began opening shops in the French provinces outside Paris and a third in the city itself that sold books, the newest addition to the product range. The founders of the company sold 40 percent of the company to insurance firm Union des Assurances de Paris (now Axa ) to raise money to fund growth. In turn, the insurance firm sold 16 percent of its shares to investment bank Banque de Paris et des Pays Bas (later Banque Paribas ) in 1972. In 1974,

765-415: The company began selling books at 80% of the recommended retail price , sparking protests from publishers, writers and independent booksellers alike, who could not benefit from the economies of scale . This prompted government action in 1982 with the so-called 'anti-Fnac' law, that was signed to limit discounts on books to a maximum of five percent. In 1975, videos were added to the product range. Towards

810-689: The company continued with the training of sales assistants in their product categories, with purchases being guaranteed for one year. Furthermore, all products were tested in the company's independent test centre before sale. The test centre would check for technical quality, ease of use, price, and value for money ("rapport qualité-prix"), and all results were published in the company's free members' magazine Contact , which today can also be found advertised in store. In addition, staff were expected to do more than just sell their products but offer advice to customers and, beginning in 1957, blacklist any unsatisfactory products, such as those with technical difficulties. By

855-424: The company revealed growing revenues though shrinking profits in the early 1990s, also attributed to the recession in the French economy. In 1991 the company recorded gross sales of FFr 7.4 billion, while profits fell approximately FFr 55 million, to FFr 159.5 million. The following year, despite a rise in revenues to FFr 8.9 billion, the company's net income dropped to FFr 31.9 million. The falling profits for Fnac

900-415: The company was fined 10 million euros for "deceptive marketing practices". Customers buying a phone in a FNAC store are indeed offered a refund offer of 30 euros, which leads them to leave their bank details to enjoy, signing unknowingly an insurance contract mixed documents. It then commits them for one year to pay 15.99 euros per month, monthly payments then rising to 37.99 euros, customers often not aware of

945-536: The company was offered to the public. SGCC, however, maintained a 51 percent control of the company, which now employed more than 2,700 and was declaring turnover of FFr 2.2 billion. Théret left the company in 1981. In 1981, FNAC opened a store in Brussels, Belgium under the management of Sodal, a joint-venture between FNAC (40 percent) and the GIB Group (60 percent). The GIB Group later added three more stores in

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990-514: The company's most important sources of revenue. During the late 1980s, Petriat added a music distribution division following the purchase of Wotre Music Distribution (WMD). In January 1991, Fnac Music was formed. Petriat hoped to build the first French multinational record company, with plans to capture as much as five percent of the market. The 1990s brought fierce competition after the arrival of HMV and Virgin Megastores in 1988 as well as

1035-496: The end of its first full year of operation the company saw revenues of 50 million old francs. In 1957, it was selling televisions, hi-fis, recording equipment, radios and records. In 1966, the Fnac store was opened to non-members and began to expand, opening its second store, also in Paris on the avenue de Wagram, near the Arc de Triomphe in 1969. By this time, the company had 580 employees. The 1970s saw further expansion for Fnac, as

1080-399: The firm Architecture Farshid Moussavi , Cuno & Jean Brullmann Crochon-Luc, Jean-Paul Viguier , Epstein & Glaiman / Recevki Architecture, Araldo Cossutta & Ponte , and Arte-Charpentier . Fnac Fnac ( French pronunciation: [fnak] ) is a French multinational retail chain specializing in the sale of entertainment media and consumer electronics . Fnac

1125-448: The group. The following are the company shareholders as of December 2021: Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield is listed in several indexes, including: Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield is rated A by Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings. In 2015, Standard Ethics Aei has given a rating to Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield in order to include it in its Standard Ethics French Index. Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield owns 87 shopping centers (as of April 2021) in

1170-696: The investment company Impala, became chairman of the board of directors, while Martinez, who previously headed the Northern Europe region at Fnac Darty, was appointed CEO of the company. In February 2018, the French Property and Casualty Insurance Company (Sfam) became the second largest shareholder in the Fnac Darty group. In August 2018, the UFC-Que choisir announces filing a complaint for "deceptive marketing practices". In June 2019,

1215-574: The late 1970s, Fnac continued to expand by building to 12 stores in Paris and other cities through France. In 1977, the remaining shares of the company's founders were sold to the Société Génerale des Cooperatives de Consommation (SGCC, the financial arm of the Coop retailing group) to raise more capital. FNAC became a Public limited company on the Paris stock exchange in 1980 when 25 percent of

1260-740: The main cities of the countries where it operates, 97% of which attract more than 6 million visitors per year. In terms of Office Real Estate, Unibail-Rodamco invests in and develops efficient buildings with more than 10,000 square metres of usable retail space in Paris, such as the Ariane Tower in La Défense and the Majunga Tower. To conceive and design its buildings, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield works with high-end architectural firms like Thomas Mayne of Morphosis firm, Herzog & de Meuron , RIADH group (De La Hoz, Cottrell, Michelangeli),

1305-581: The majority stake in FNAC for FFr 1.9 billion to François Pinault, the largest shareholder in and architect of Pinault-Printemps-Redoute. Since 1994, PPR or Pinault-Printemps-Redoute has been the majority shareholder of Fnac and the company was led by François-Henri Pinault, son of the parent company's head François Pinault. The new ownership saw the closure of the WMD and FNAC Music subsidiaries and instead concentrated on further expansion of its retail chain. In 1995,

1350-565: The mid-1980s, in Ghent , Antwerp , and Liège . In 1983, Essel retired and was replaced by the then SGCC president Roger Kerinec. In 1985, SGCC sold its shares to the insurance group Garantie Mutuelle des Fonctionnaires (GMF) due to growing competition from the French hypermarket and discount chains such as Carrefour and E.Leclerc . Michel Barouin, GMF's president and director general, took these positions at FNAC as well. In 1987, Barouin disappeared in an airplane accident and Jean-Louis Petriat

1395-739: The new name Unibail-Rodamco on June 25, 2007. On June 1, 2011, Unibail-Rodamco hired former Fnac CEO Christophe Cuvillier as the new COO. In collaboration with CEO and chairman of the board Guillaume Poitrinal , he led the company to five years of growth in spite of tough economic conditions. In May 2015, Unibail revealed it had signed an agreement with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to sell its 46.1% stake in German shopping mall operator MFI AG for €394 million. In December 2017, Unibail took over Westfield Corporation , which operated 35 shopping centres in

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1440-497: The opening of a fifth store in 1997. In March 1996, François-Henri, was named chairman of Fnac and opened two stores in France. At this point, Fnac had revenues passing FFr 10 billion and net earnings of FFr 200 million. In 1999, the first Fnac store outside Europe was opened in São Paulo, Brazil. In 2013, Kering (formerly PPR) spun off Fnac as an independent company. In 2017, Fnac Darty launched into online advertising with

1485-406: The process. On April 10, 2007, Rodamco Europe announced an agreement to conduct a merger of equals with Unibail to create the largest publicly traded property company in Europe. The merger was confirmed on June 21, 2007, after Unibail announced the acquisition of 80% of Rodamco's shares, making its offer for the remainder unconditional. The merged entity took effect as a société anonyme under

1530-623: The property investment sector, and phased out involvement in lease financing. It built a property portfolio of close to 30 shopping centres across France – including the Forum des Halles and the arcade within CNIT – and substantial office properties in Paris and La Défense – including the Tour Ariane and the Paris Expo group of convention centres. Rodamco Europe formed in 1999 when Rodamco,

1575-493: The sale of its own web spaces to advertisers. In particular, the group set up a specialised department in January, headed by Arnauld de Saint Pastou. In May 2017, Fnac launched its own bank card, called Fnac Mastercard, in partnership with Crédit Agricole and Consumer Finance. In July 2017, Enrique Martinez and Jacques Veyrat became the new bosses of Fnac and replaced Alexandre Bompard, who left for Carrefour. Veyrat, chairman of

1620-403: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title URW . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=URW&oldid=1234801482 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

1665-570: The situation that several months later. In April 2020, following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fnac was the first large French company to tap a government-guaranteed loan (500 million euro). In 2024, FNAC opens its first café at Gare du Nord. As of October 2018, the company owns stores in France, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland, and is present as franchising in Luxembourg, Morocco, Qatar, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Senegal and

1710-529: The size of the Virgin megastore, which became known as "the Cathedral". In 1991, the first Fnac store was opened in Berlin continuing with Petriat's plans, this was close to the original Virgin megastore, which opened there only a few months earlier. In 1992, the fate of FNAC Librairie Internationale, featuring books in languages other than French, was sealed and closed after only a year of trading. This store

1755-442: The strength of hypermarkets. The company responded by cutting its prices and stepping up the competition, which forced HMV to leave France after only six months. Virgin Megastores remained in the French market, and decided to open two more stores in addition to its original store in Paris. In response to the megastore, as seen to the right, Fnac spent around $ 23 million to build its own megastore, at 32,000 square metres, more than twice

1800-556: Was a similar situation to the parent company, GMF whose share count totalled more than 80 percent. To raise more capital, GMF agreed to sell its shares of FNAC in July 1993 to Altus Finances, a subsidiary of government-owned Crédit Lyonnais , and Phenix, a property group owned by French waterworks company Compagnie Générale des Eaux , for FFr 2.4 billion. The deal came under scrutiny by the Commission des opérations de bourse (COB) though

1845-493: Was allowed to proceed in September 1993. Crédit Lyonnais became the majority shareholder, with 64 percent of shares, while Générale des Eaux held 34 percent. The remaining two percent of shares continued to be publicly owned. In 1994, Crédit Lyonnais announced it was going to sell its 64 percent share of the company as part of a FFr 20 billion asset-reduction plan. In July 1994, the Altus Finances subsidiary agreed to sell

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1890-563: Was converted to a computer products-only concept, called FNAC Micro, which proved more successful. In 1993, the first Fnac store was opened in Madrid, Spain. However, the FNAC Music subsidiary, while posting some successes, failed to live up to the company's expectations and was unable to gain more than a two percent market share and was eventually sold off the distribution arm WMD, which shut down FNAC Music in 1994. Despite some failures,

1935-591: Was founded by André Essel and Max Théret in 1954. Its headquarters is located in Le Flavia in Ivry-sur-Seine near Paris. Its name is an abbreviation of Fédération Nationale d’Achats des Cadres ("National Purchasing Federation for Cadres "). It merged with Darty in 2016 to become Groupe Fnac Darty . Max Théret had a passion for photography which began in 1932. Hunted by the Gestapo , Théret left

1980-474: Was named to lead both GMF and FNAC. In 1988, the first Virgin Megastore opened in Paris. Petriat announced a FFr 1.5 billion plan to add 15 new stores to the 31-store chain and double the company's gross revenues, in order to compete with the new entrant to the French market. Petriat also had plans to expand into the German market. By this point, sales of compact discs and other recordings had joined books as

2025-993: Was transferred to Orlando Italy fund. Fnac operates as a franchise within the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, its webstore operates through the Belgian platform. Fnac operates a single store in Monaco, in the Métropole shopping centre. In 2011, Fnac opened its first store in Africa, located in Morocco Mall in Casablanca , Morocco. In 2017, Fnac opened their second store in Morocco, located in Ibn Batouta Mall in Tangier . In 2018, they opened Fnac Anfa located in

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