Max Théret (6 January 191325 February 2009) was the co-founder of Fnac, originally ''Fédération nationale d’achats des cadres, or National Purchasing Federation for Middle Managers'', alongside André Essel. He was also a

freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

antifascist activist and a believer in Trotskyism.

Political career

Before the rise of the extreme right, Max Théret often engaged with street battles against French Stalinists during the years following the death of Vladimir Lenin and the intense power struggle between Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky. Between 1936 and 1939, Max Théret joined the battle against

Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War ...

in the Spanish Civil War. After which he returned to France, where he met with Trotsky who was in exile, and became his informal bodyguard. During the Second World War he fought for the French army, and joined the resistance during the Occupation, helping to distribute leftist newspapers.

Forming of Fnac

Théret had a passion for photography which originally began in 1932. When hunted by the Gestapo, Théret left the Occupied Zone in 1942, moving to Grenoble, where he took up photography as a career. After the war, he trained as a photo laboratory technician, founded his own laboratory, and later constructed the first colour-processing machine in France. In 1951, while working for the PTT telephone company, he founded Economie Nouvelle, a buying group that arranged discounts for members on products sold through participating merchants. In 1953, he met André Essel, the other co-founder of Fnac, and the two conceived the idea of forming a new buyers club through a magazine called ''Contact''. Founded a year later in 1954, Fnac was exclusive to its members only, offering sharp discounts on its products, based on the founders' socialist principles. Their aim was to improve the lives of the workers, not through higher salaries but through lower prices. In 1974, Fnac began selling books at 80% off the Recommended Retail Price, sparking protests and a law in 1982 that limited the level of discounts that could be offered on books. He left the company in 1981.

Sources

FNAC World Retail Congress Hall of Fame Biographies

The Times: Max Théret: French businessman and founder of the FNAC stores

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Theret, Max 1913 births 2009 deaths Businesspeople from Paris Leon Trotsky French Freemasons