PROFILES

“We see the business as one of the family, which pushes us to invest even more.”

Diligence, respect, commitment and... family! That’s how Vincent Le Guelaff, Options Nice’s operations manager, defines the values of the reception hire, decoration and staging business that his father opened on the Riviera in 1989. When the Options head office sent Georges Le Guelaff (aka Jojo) to open a branch in the South, working with his son wasn’t in the plan! Thirty years on, Options Nice’s evident love for what it does sets itself apart from the competition, a love passed on from generation to generation and employee to employee. “We see the business as one of the family, which pushes us to invest even more.” Vincent did summer jobs in the business run by his father but wasn’t necessarily thinking of working with him. Then fate stepped in and the two men found themselves in partnership – complicit at home, complementary at work! “When I started as admin officer in 2015 it was difficult. It’s easier to join a firm when you’re a ‘son of’ but much harder to prove yourself.” That didn’t prevent Vincent, who’s in his thirties, making his mark, the merit of his work backed up by the notion of transmission recently embraced wholesale by Options Nice, which in high season employs almost 100 people. Vincent insists that “employees have to be happy in their work, that’s the most important thing. A discontented employee costs more, and not only financially.” A view his CEO father fully endorses: “I’ve devoted a large part of my life to this business. Some of my employees have worked for me for 20 years, from the very beginning even; they’re like a second family and I’ve always tried to promote upward mobility, skills transmission and training.” To which Vincent adds: “Now I want to spend more time out on the job, so I can really get to grips with the realities and thereby respond even better to the needs of my employees and clients.” A real father figure!

Par Marie Thouvenel – Photo Serge-Henri