In 1957, the Darty family – the father and his three sons, Natan, Marcel and Bernard – managed a small store of textiles. The Darty brothers started to sell stock, and, to attract customers, they left the goods on the pavement. In a few days, the stock was sold. In 1967, the Darty brothers transferred to a larger warehouse. In 1988, the company proceeded with the repurchase of the company by its employees through a management buyout thus showing economic and social innovation. The operation was a success, since 90% of employees took part and controlled 56% of the capital. At the end of 1988, Darty opened its hundredth store. In 1993, Darty was bought by Kingfisher plc, which integrated Darty and Comet in a European entity based in Paris: Kingfisher Electricals S.A.. In 1999, this led to Darty opening up a commercial internet site. This entity increased in size through acquisitions and, at the beginning of 2003, included Darty and But in France, Comet in the United Kingdom, BCC in the Netherlands, Vanden Borre in Belgium and Datart in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In October 2006, Darty launched DartyBox, which is an ADSL internet, television and telecommunications provider based on the network of French internet operator Completel. The company was demerged from Kingfisher plc in July 2003. In July 2007, the company bought Menaje Del Hogar, an electrical retail chain based in Spain. On 6 July 2009, the company sold its Swiss operation. In February 2012, the company completed the sale of Comet Group, which they sold for £2 to OpCapita in November 2011, and also paid the purchaser a "sweetener" of £50 million to take the loss making venture away. On 31 July 2012, Kesa Electricals was renamed Darty plc. In March 2014, Darty launched its own marketplace that lists products and services from Darty and third party vendors. In November 2015, Darty plc reached an agreement to merge with the French retailer Fnac. In March 2016, Darty announced it had instead agreed to be purchased by Steinhoff International for £673 million, through Steinhoff's Conforama subsidiary. Fnac returned with a higher offer, resulting in a bidding war between Fnac and Conforama during April 2016. The Fnac offer was declared unconditional on 19 July 2016, thereby allowing the takeover to be completed. In July 2019, Fnac Darty acquired Natures & Decouvertes, a specialist of outdoor, nature and well-being goods.
Operations
Darty was headquartered in London. It had sourcing offices based in Paris and Hong Kong, as well as a wholly owned wholesaler of electrical accessories, Dacem, which supplied all of Darty's European operations. Following the takeover by Fnac, Fnac and Darty merged, the Fnac group became Fnac Darty and the Darty headquarters joined the Fnac headquarters in Ivry Sur Seine. Its structure is as follows:
Darty France: retailer in France; operating 222 stores with 321,800 square metres of selling space
BCC: retail and E-commerce in Belgium and the Netherlands; operating 75 stores with 89,800 square metres of selling space
Vanden Borre: retailer in Belgium; operating 72 stores with 55,600 square metres of selling space
