After the presentation of the company DPSG and its change in ownership we wanted to get to know its new leader better.
Hello Mr. Grillon, could you first introduce yourself quickly to the readers of Pêche.com Magazine?
Jean-Baptiste Grillon âeuros I am 39 years old, I am married and father of a little girl of 5 years old who dreams of going fishing for mahi-mahi (dolphinfish) with her father! I am from Sologne and Normandy. It's in the region of the thousand ponds that I started fishing at the age of 6. Moreover, I gave up the name "DPSG Paris" in favor of "DPSG" because I believe not only that we are not a luxury company and in addition, of the 6 members of the DPSG staff, only one is Parisian! Today I am happy, I have a great team around me and we have a work tool that only needs to be developed!
Can you tell us about your background?
Jean-Baptiste Grillon âeuros I have a standard academic background that ended with a Business School in Paris. I worked for 15 years before taking over DPSG in April 2020, first in a large French group and then with the Americans, always having a deep business background. With these experiences in large groups, I was looking for the experience of a smaller structure that was growing. That's when I joined Bankin' for 2 years. I set up the Business Unit to monetize the technology for professionals. There were 10 of us when I arrived and over 70 when I left. Going through this for 2 years allowed me to understand the challenges of a developing company, to work with much younger people, unlike my previous experiences where I worked with people more experienced than me.
What links you to fishing?
Jean-Baptiste Grillon âeuros I am 39 years old and I have been fishing for 35 years! I don't consider myself an expert, I'm very generalist, I fish all species. I love fishing and nature. In addition to my origins in Sologne, a simple little story, which gives the why and how of fishing and the DPSG adventure thereafter, is that I was lucky enough to go on vacation to my grandmother who lived on the Atlantic coast. She had put us, my brother and I, at the Club Mickey, located on a small beach in the Vendée. She left us there in the morning and when she came to pick us up at the end of the afternoon, we were no longer there. We had walked about 2km on the beach and she found us on the Estacade among the fishermen. We got a lot of grief that evening and the next day we did it again! My grandmother realized the obvious. She got out my grandfather's old rods and we never went to the Club again (laughs). I then moved up the food chain. I started out fishing for smelts with a small line. Later, with the smelt tails I started to catch mackerel, and then with the mackerel tails I went to conger eel. So I had the possibility to fish every summer on the coast and the rest of the year in Sologne. Many years later, I multiplied the experiences of exotic fishing.
The Sologne is rather associated with hunting in the common imagination. Why fishing?
Jean-Baptiste Grillon âeuros Yes, but I immediately preferred fishing because of the pleasure of taking life. In hunting, one pulls a trigger and makes the choice to take life, in his soul and conscience. Man having suppressed the big predators, there is a need to take but it does not prevent one from making this decision to take. When fishing, you have the possibility to take pleasure, to feel the touch, to live the fight to finally cradle your opponent and let him go back to his natural environment. In hunting I quickly took pleasure in making approaches. It was a great game with my brothers: Who will approach the deer closest (without a weapon)? I respect hunting, I sometimes share hunting days with my family. I enjoy hunting wood pigeon, but fishing has always been much more exciting for me.
Listening to your professional and fishing background, the takeover of DPSG makes sense but what triggered you to take over this brand?
Jean-Baptiste Grillon âeuros It is clear that for those around me this was not a surprise. Geoffrey, my current assistant and long-time friend, first told me about DPSG a long time ago. When we went to the store, I remember feeling like I had discovered a veritable Ali Baba's cave. Some time later, during a fishing trip together, when I was finishing my business school, Geoffrey said to me: "With your business school and your passion for fishing, it's DPSG that you should take over! Since then, this sentence has resonated with me in a special way. 15 years later, I'm here as the new owner!
How did you approach this new professional adventure?
Jean-Baptiste Grillon âeuros With a lot of humility! Even if I know the fishing world as a fisherman, that I have a professional experience of about fifteen years, the fishing business world is a discovery. It is important to remain humble. This is one of the pillars of the DPSG team. We are not the smallest, we are far from being the biggest. You have to know how to play in your own backyard and do your job the best you can. Vincent Debris (former owner and founder of DPSG) is still close to the company. We exchange a lot. In fact, he took advantage of the last Fishing Show in Clermont-Ferrand last January to introduce me to all the suppliers. A way to pass the baton in all simplicity.
What are DPSG's goals for the future?
Jean-Baptiste Grillon âeuros DPSG is a project on which there will be many more iterations, whether it is the website or the stores. There are many projects to come but what satisfies me the most and represents the main objective, beyond the turnover generated, is the fact of seeing the customers happy to see us and to discuss. Seeing all the customers leave with a smile on their face is the most important thing for me because the turnover will naturally follow. To give time to the customers, to talk to them as naturally as possible, to be precise and constant in the work, to create a warm atmosphere for the team, to respect the human being, the nature, our passion. I repeat these sentences to myself every day.
