The Bandage Kings

Four burly, unsmiling men in a black Mercedes-Benz limousine drive unannounced to the doors of a floundering textile company. Brusquely, they insist on seeing the owner--and they offer him a proposition for a takeover on the spot. France's Willot brothers--Bernard, 45, Jean-Pierre, 40, Antoine, 38, Regis, 35--have made that scenario increasingly familiar in European industrial circles. They make it their business to find out about textile firms in financial trouble and move in to grab control at bargain prices. In ten years of incessant acquisitions, they have stitched together the biggest textile combine in the Common Market, comprising some 50 firms with combined annual sales of $245 million. They produce 40% of France's tenting and bandages, 50% of its linen, 60% of its diapers.

Last week the Willot brothers capped their purchases with Bon Marche, France's oldest department store chain, which has 13 outlets with yearly sales of about $80 million. The Willots' offer was $46 million for a 50% interest and control over management. Through the department stores, they say, "we will get closer to the consumer."

The Willots are driven by two ambitions. One is to build a modern Europe-wide textile empire out of the fragmented French industry, which suffers from creaking methods, ancient machinery and nepotism. The other ambition is more personal: to sweep out the grandes families of northern France who have dominated French textiles for many decades and look down their noses at such commoners as the Willots, who did not get beyond trade school. "They are out to conserve," explain the Willots. "We are out to conquer."

The four brothers look, think, talk and act alike. As they put it: "We are one brain in four heads." They share the same headquarters office in the grimy industrial town of Lille--and the same black car. When the eldest brother, Bernard, took over his family's M. J. Willot Co. in Lille in 1954, it employed 200 people who produced a $3,000,000-a-year volume of bandages and baby diapers. Bernard was soon able to squeeze out 20% profits on those sales, and he used the added income to expand.

First to Go. Soon Bernard and his brothers realized that many ill-managed French textile firms needed just a little push to fall into their hands. Openly or covertly, they managed to get the balance sheets of failing companies, then they made their bid.

Once in charge, the Willots ruthlessly fire superfluous personnel, especially general directors, executives and family retainers. "The first cost to eliminate is the cost of management," they like to say. Then the Willots set production and sales goals for the next six months: unless they are met, the company is usually closed. Even then, such by-products of the acquisition as sumptuous Paris headquarters and storage facilities may still make their investment worthwhile.

So far, the Willots have invested little in new equipment. Instead, they have begun spreading into Africa in joint ventures with both the French and local governments. They have set up cotton mills and spinning plants in Bangui (Central African Republic) and Niamey (Niger), and they are negotiating about a third in Bamako (Mali).

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