Julien Leclerq, 40, was already a member of the board of directors and has “a 20-year experience at Decathlon.” He was category manager in Spain, ran a store in Belgium, and has launched “Decathlon initiatives in Singapore,” said Decathlon, which is owned by French family Mulliez.
“He also took charge of the Genairgy investment fund and contributed to the creation of Decathlon Travel,” a subsidiary specialised in sports travel, according to the firm.
The group also stated that Julien Leclerq was chosen following a “comprehensive selection process by the shareholders, which lasted several months,” and will succeed Fabien Derville, who was appointed chairman in 2018.
In January 2022, Decathlon named as CEO Barbara Martin Coppola, a Franco-Spanish executive formerly with Ikea, Google and YouTube. Martin Coppola has deployed a strategic plan aimed at positioning Decathlon no longer just as a sport retailer, but as a “sporting brand.”
Decathlon was founded in 1975 by Michel Leclercq, now 85, a cousin of Auchan founder Gérard Mulliez. The sport retailer’s board of directors had previously been chaired by another of Michel’s sons, Mathieu, until Derville took office in 2018.
Decathlon is regularly ranked among France’s favourite retailers, but in early January it was accused by investigative journalism NGO Disclose and the Cash Investigation programme by TV channel France 2 of benefiting from the forced labour of Uighurs in China.
The French leader in sporting goods, a major multinational retailer with 100,000 employees and 1,700 stores in over 70 countries, reacted by “firmly condemning all forms of forced labour.”
Cash Investigation was also interested in the legal status of the Association Familiale Mulliez (AFM), a body that controls retailers such as Leroy Merlin, Kiabi, Flunch, Boulanger and Auchan, and comprises nearly 900 members of the Mulliez family.
The AFM “does not – despite its name – have the legal status of association,” it told the AFP agency, and doesn’t even have any “legal capacity.”
