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Groupe Briconord generates €150 million in revenue and distributes more than 30,000 DIY and hardware products. Operating in France and across Europe, the group has more than 400 employees and brings together several companies that have joined it over the years (Nordlinger Pro, Maclean, Interges, Norail, CQFD, Louis Moulin, and Scell-it). By integrating new businesses, Groupe Briconord aims to strengthen its presence across all the main distribution channels (home improvement retail, trade distribution, and e-commerce) and to meet every need of tradespeople and DIYers with innovative, clever, and affordable products.
For a multi-company, multi-brand group built through acquisitions and supplying many home improvement chains as well as professional and digital channels, data (and especially product information) is a strategic asset. But for data to become a real performance driver, it first has to be structured and governed effectively. That is why Groupe Briconord turned to Synolia for guidance on its approach to data governance and to lay the foundations of a solid strategy, starting with product data.
Groupe Briconord brings together a dozen brands and more than 30,000 products sold through home improvement chains, trade distribution, and e-commerce, throughout France and Europe. While management is committed to preserving a largely decentralized model (where each company keeps its own DNA, agility, sales policy, and closeness to customers), it also aims to strengthen group performance by pooling certain shared functions (IT, purchasing, finance) and rolling out digital tools that optimize and streamline both operational flows and the way work is organized. As part of the group’s digital transformation, which addresses the challenges of e-commerce and digital purchasing, Thomas Rebiere, CEO of Groupe Briconord, engaged Synolia for a strategic consulting assignment focused on data management.
“Every company has several strategic assets: its people, customers, suppliers, cash, inventory… and data. For traditional companies like ours, realizing the importance of this sixth asset marks a real turning point in our growth strategy.”
Define a cross-functional data management strategy that serves as the foundation for the group’s digitalization and supports its growth goals in France and internationally.
Three steps to deliver a well-founded recommendation and define transformation scenarios so Groupe Briconord can make informed decisions.
As buying habits go digital and omnichannel, Groupe Briconord wants to adapt to the new expectations of end customers. The goal: provide its distributor customers with all the product data they need to meet the demands of a digital buying journey, and ensure reliable, consistent information at every touchpoint.
“Our distributor customers are pursuing an omnichannel strategy. End customers compare online, on mobile, in store… They ask AI, buy in store, choose in-store pickup or home delivery… In short, the customer journey is going fully digital, and we need to provide clear information all along that journey. Hence the need to enrich our product data.”
By helping Groupe Briconord clarify its goals and reaffirm its mission (offering distributors and end customers relevant products backed by reliable information across all channels), Synolia led the group to see product information as central to its data strategy. Even before looking at commercial considerations.
With this in mind, PIM (Product Information Management) quickly emerged as the most relevant, top-priority tool to structure data management across the group and make it more reliable.
“Data is a very broad topic. Rather than relying on gut feeling alone, we chose to start from scratch with a consulting assignment: redefine our goals and those of the company. Through that process, PIM quickly emerged as a priority, foundational tool.”
Synolia proposed three market solutions. The Groupe Briconord teams settled on Akeneo for its agility and completeness. They also found the solution easy to learn and well suited to teams that do not work on data full time.
“We couldn't start with solutions that seemed extremely complex to us. Our own teams are going to work on it, so we need a fairly agile tool that's easy to learn.”
This complex, strategic data structuring project was carried out jointly by about twenty group employees (a project manager and at least two people from each company) and the Synolia team, ensuring a collaborative approach aligned with business needs and the overall digitalization strategy.
Stakeholders worked to consolidate the product attributes of the group’s 12 brands and 30,000 products. More than 1,400 attributes were initially identified. They were then grouped and streamlined into 380 key attributes, simplifying data management while preserving its richness.
This consolidation cut the volume of information to manage by a factor of three and created a single, shared data model that brings all the group’s companies and brands together on a common foundation, which each company can customize.
“Every distributor has its own requirements for the volume and complexity of the data we provide. They don't all use the same data standard. Given this, we decided to build a solid foundation and master 100% of our product information so we can send the right specific information to each channel.”
Today, the Groupe Briconord PIM project is being rolled out. The first company will start using the Akeneo PIM in December 2025, and the PIM will open to the other companies gradually over the first half of 2026. It is a fundamental, foundational project for the group’s data strategy.
“What I take away from this assignment is the importance of investing time upfront to get the scoping right, and not rushing to deploy the tool across every company. We learned a lot about data in general, data governance, and the importance of having master data. Things that may seem intuitive but that we hadn't necessarily mastered, and where Synolia and its teams gave us great support.”
But data is a sprawling topic, and it raises other major transformation projects for Groupe Briconord (notably around CRM and customer data).
“Synolia is a partner we are very satisfied with, and we feel confident about the future, both in our choice of solution and in rolling out the Akeneo PIM across all our companies. Synolia is a company on a human scale: Romain and Adeline understand the challenges that small and mid-sized businesses face, and that helps us.”
Need consulting support to structure your data or your PIM project? Contact us!
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