Most of our wood products are labelled PEFC etc

Yves Martin-Delahaye, President of the Executive Board of Gedex

Constraint as an opportunity

Gedimat and Gedibois networks, sustainable development plays its first of three classical axes environmental protection: the origin of the products sold in the store, the treatment of waste and energy savings. "Most of our wood products are labelled - PEFC, etc." "They come from managed forests, reforestation is organized," says Yves Martin-Delahaye, President of the Executive Board of Gedex1, representing 9 to 10 of the shares in its market. The construction sector generates lot of waste - including by the demolition - and trading activity, through packaging, pallets of stockage However, Gedimat is positioned on the renovation, which represents more than half of the construction market. "This constraint, this responsible attitude towards the waste must be regarded as an opportunity, a source of development of the business." By providing a service to the customer. "We are finalising now a framework agreement with a national operator to provide management of the"à la carte"waste treatment", said Yves Martin-Delahaye.

Sustainable development, a competitive advantage

As the sector of the building remains one of the main producers of - almost equivalent to the transport - greenhouse gases, Gedimat released last February a catalogue that combines guide good environmental as economic ideas, and catalog building and individual professionals to destination. "The initiative of a such guide becomes a real competitive advantage, with a staff of trained." For several days, our sales forces were sensitized to issues of sustainable development, to the regulation as to the tax credits. This training has been completed technically by a deepening of the knowledge of products and their implementation. There is no solution to sustainable development, but the solutions on the problem of each construction: insulation, bridges thermiques We must now also work on the formation of the clients of the Group artisans, so that all the players in the sector are truly in a process that cannot be that overall. "We must be one of the links in the implementation of the Grenelle de l'environnement", provides Yves Martin-Delahaye.

Rare capitalization system

"Sustainable development, by definition, it is the development in the long term." It must take into account both what is sustainable for the planet, what it is for businesses. Sustainability of enterprises in the local fabric participates in the dynamism of a region. For more than 25 years, we propose a system of capitalization quite unique in the universe of the groups, based on the fruits of trade cooperation. "The positive results of the cooperative are distributed to members proportionately to the purchases they have made to the suppliers," said Yves Martin-Delahaye.

Combat the globalization of capital

This system of capitalization, members with Group Gedex close to 100 million euros of consolidated own funds. Completeness of these financial resources is devoted to the network. For example, through a subsidiary financial institution loans to members, which are credit to their customers, comprised 60 of the building professionals and 40 of individuals. Or again, taking a share of risk in the funding of the holdings to ensure the transmission of enterprise, convertible bonds or capital, while remaining minority from the (x) buyer (s). "This type of financial avoids one of the companies of the group from being taken over by a group and finally left the group," said Yves Martin-Delahaye.

1 Created in 1967, Gedex (Gedimat, Gedibois) is a group of 200 business leaders and 440 points of sale. Gedimat (428 points of sale) positions itself on the general distributor for building materials, Gedibois (created in September 2008, 12 points of sale) on the specialist trading wood panel.