Greg Liénard is no stranger to Lyreco: he has been with the group for more than 20 years, serving as HR Director, Manager of the mergers and acquisitions team and, for the past eight years, In July 2019, he stepped up to the CEO role at Lyreco.
For more information on Lyreco and Greg Liénard, read the following articles:
2023
Lyreco expands product assortment
2022
Lyreco confirms B2B marketplace
Management reshuffle at Lyreco
Lyreco reports on Ecovadis ratings
2021
Big Interview: On the right track
OPI Talk podcast: CEO Greg Liénard discusses challenges and change at Lyreco
Lyreco Switzerland to produce own electricity
Lyreco supporting microbusinesses
Lyreco and Fellowes team up for paper initiative
Lyreco subsidiary establishes CSR role
Lyreco trialling packaging reuse
Lyreco finalises Staples Solutions acquisition
Staples Solutions to sell its remaining European businesses
OPI Talk podcast: Circular economy and sustainability with Lyreco
Lyreco Switzerland makes PPE appointment
Lyreco expands green deliveries
Background information
2021: Lyreco made a major move in the European contract channel in 2021 when it acquired a significant portion of Staples Solutions. This included businesses in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria and Poland. The transaction also involved Staples Solutions’ central shared services (IT, e-commerce, customer experience, merchandising, supply chain planning and finance), primarily located in Gdansk, Poland, and the Dutch city of Amsterdam. In total, around 1,600 staff were added to the approximately 9,000 Lyreco already employed in Europe.
While that was the major event in 2021, Lyreco CEO Greg Liénard was also busy on a number of other fronts. During the year, the reseller integrated Intersafe, the PPE and safety products supplier it acquired at the end of 2018, while it continues to develop its omnichannel offering for SMBs.
CSR and sustainability are other key topics. The company’s vision is to be the leading eco-responsible B2B reseller for the workplace. For example, it is targeting generating 90% of its sales from eco-responsible products and services by 2026 – the year in which Lyreco will celebrate its 100th anniversary.
Check out the OPI in-depth Big Interview with Liénard from January 2021. Or listen to the OPI Talk podcast where you can also hear more about Lyreco’s current global footprint – and why it exited markets such as Canada and Australia – plus its five new strategic pillars.
2019: After relocating back to France from Singapore, as new CEO Greg Liénard said his first priority would be to listen, travelling to all Lyreco’s subsidiaries to connect with local teams and to understand their key issues and opportunities. He doesn’t believe there are any major issues within the group, but described Lyreco as a “sleeping beauty” that needs to be awakened to realise its full potential.
Liénard recognises the good work done by Milcent to transform Lyreco into a modern, technology-enabled company. A project called Dare 3.0 started a few years ago by his predecessor is due to come to an end next month, but Liénard is not contemplating stopping this transformation process. Indeed, he wants to accelerate the strategy that has been put in place.
The roadmap for the integration of the Intersafe/Elacin acquisition in the personal protective equipment category was presented in September and Liénard is not ruling out further acquisitions that would provide greater expertise to Lyreco in other product categories.
Perhaps Lyreco will be more of a risk-taker under Liénard’s leadership. Since 2015, he has also acted as Innovation Director, and says this experience helped him learn a lot about the way start-ups think. He values the importance of Lyreco’s heritage, but also sees the need to evolve, change mindsets and test new concepts.
