Arnaud Lagardère inaugurated the Team Lagardère complex

Team Lagardère founder Arnaud Lagardère today inaugurated the Team Lagardère complex, a top-notch centre of scientific expertise for high-level sports located in the heart of Club Omnisports Paris Jean Bouin. With Paris’ Mayor Bertrand Delanoë and a host of athletes looking on, Team Lagardère staff members presented the project’s organizational and technical progress since its start-up last May.

An innovative research platform serving the needs of elite athletes

“I draw inspiration in managing my company from a history and culture that has given Lagardère a unique relationship with time. We are taking the same far-sighted, long-term approach to our original, innovative project to promote excellence in sports. Indeed, our goal is to develop a real centre of scientific expertise applied to sports, combining the most advanced skills in sports research, training and coaching” said Arnaud Lagardère.

With 1,800 sq.m of scientific research facilities, as of January 2006 the new infrastructure will offer athletes and their trainers a solution that is innovative in several ways:

• Concentrated resources: for the first time in France, a centre of scientific expertise will be located in the heart of a multi-purpose sports facility, making it possible to simultaneously analyze performance and provide support during training. The complex will eventually add an aquatic section, a conference centre and lodging options.
• Multipurpose goals: in addition to its current involvement in French tennis, Team Lagardère plans to expand its mandate to cover many other sports. To that end, Christian Miller’s team is already involved in:
  -> Rugby, coinciding with work performed for the France de Rugby group, and
  -> Track and field, with Guy Ontanon.
• Nurturing future talent: created at the initiative of some of Europe’s best sports technicians, Team Lagardère is part of a people-centric project dedicated to nurturing future talent.

“Having a high-tech/media company take an interest in sports can only yield a highly innovative project, focused on sports performance” explains Xavier Moreau, Managing Director of Team Lagardère.

A new model for sports: the Associate Partners Club

The project’s second major step is the introduction of its Club de Partenaires Associés, created around Team Lagardère. “The club has two purposes: to enhance the project by marshalling the skills of major sports figures and to help Team Lagardère expand its influence through joint marketing initiatives” said Arnaud Molinié, Executive Director in charge of coordinating and leading Lagardère SCA/Team Lagardère and the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation.

The first associate partner, Sony France, was announced in November. Now it is Robert-Louis Dreyfus’s turn to address his decision to associate the re-launch of the famous Le Coq Sportif brand with the Team Lagardère project: “This is a major project for Le Coq Sportif. We’re going to work with Team Lagardère’s people both on developing high-level sports products and on ways to expand marketing. Personnel are already setting to work on these fascinating topics” explained Mr. Dreyfus.

In addition to the Club de Partenaires Associés, the Yves Cougnaud company has also joined Team Lagardère as an Official Supplier.

Copyright-free inauguration photos will be available after the conference in the Press section of the Team Lagardère website: www.teamlagardere.com

The Team Lagardère Web Site