Our story
- 1945
At the end of World War II, Marcel Chassagny founds Matra (Mécanique Aviation TRAction), a company focused on the defence industry. - 1963
Jean-Luc Lagardère becomes Chief Executive Officer of Matra, which has diversified into aerospace and automobiles. - 1974
Sylvain Floirat asks Jean-Luc Lagardère to head the Europe 1 radio network. - 1977
Jean-Luc Lagardère is appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Matra. - 1980
Matra acquires the Hachette group, specialised in book publishing (Grasset, Fayard, Stock, etc.), magazines and newspapers (Elle, Le Journal du Dimanche, etc.) and distribution. - 1981
The French State acquires a 51% interest in Matra (excluding Hachette). Europe 1 is sold to the French State via Sofirad.
Jean-Luc Lagardère and Daniel Filipacchi are appointed Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hachette. - 1986
Hachette regains control of Europe 1. - 10 February 1988
Matra is privatised. - 30 December 1992
Following the failure of French television channel La Cinq, Hachette is merged into Matra to form Matra-Hachette, and Lagardère Groupe, a French partnership limited by shares, is created as the umbrella company for the entire ensemble. - 1996
Matra-Hachette is absorbed into Lagardère Groupe, which changes its name to Lagardère SCA. - 1999
Aerospatiale Matra is created following the merger of Aerospatiale and Matra Hautes Technologies. - 2000
The EADS consortium is formed following the merger of Aerospatiale Matra, CASA and DaimlerChrysler Aerospace. - 14 March 2003
Death of Jean-Luc Lagardère. - 26 March 2003
Arnaud Lagardère is appointed Managing Partner of Lagardère SCA. - 2004
The Group acquires a portion of Vivendi Universal Publishing's French and Spanish assets. - 2007
The Group reorganises around four major institutional brands: Lagardère Publishing, Lagardère Services (which became Lagardère Travel Retail in 2015), Lagardère Active and Lagardère Sports (which became Lagardère Sports and Entertainment in 2015). - 2011
The Group sells its international magazine operations. - 2013
The Group divests its remaining interest in EADS. - 2015-2019
Acquisition of Paradies, Hojeij Branded Foods and International Duty Free (Travel Retail), and of Perseus Books, Bookouture, La Plage, Worthy Publishing Group and Short Books (Publishing), etc. - 2018-2020
Rollout of the Group’s strategic refocusing around two priority divisions, Lagardère Publishing and Lagardère Travel Retail.