Since 1905, more than 1,650 family members including more than 990 shareholders, descendants of Louis & Marguerite Mulliez-Lestienne and their spouses
150 companies in 62 countries, from SMEs to multinationals, employing 615,000 people in very diverse sectors.
A family close to businesses.
Businesses close to their shareholders.
The family’s entrepreneurial adventure took roots in Roubaix, when it was considered the textile capital of the world. Louis Mulliez, owner of his twisting mill in 1905, laid the foundations of the current AFM by aiding his sons and sons-in-law in 1920 to create their own businesses, with the following condition: “Each must be shareholders of the others.”
30 years later, in 1955, around twenty family owners of growing businesses
decided to structure themselves by creating the Mulliez Family Association
with the founding principle of
“Everyone in Everything ”.
It is based on 2 strong values, “solidarity” and “strength in unity”:“We want to stay Everyone in Everything and do better together than we could separetly!”.
In other words, family partners are shareholders of all companies and cannot individually decide to favour one company over another. This model provides companies with a stable shareholder base, facilitating growth and enhancing their resilience in challenging times.
The AFM model is based on another strong value: the desire to ensure family members are active in the association life, governance within the companies of which they are shareholders: A family business only retains its family character if family members are involved”.
The implication of family members in businesses is doubly virtuous: the meaning, vision and historical values of the family are shared and embodied, proximity and knowledge of “the field” allow families to wholly exercise their role as shareholders with better knowledge of the issues, and therefore with greater responsibility.
Every year, more than 500 family members aged 16 to 99 interact with companies and their employees.
Each member of the family is able to find their place and their meaning in the family association, in particular by:
• Working in an AFM company;
• Enterprising within the family incubator;
• Training in business issues;
• Contributing to the development of links between family
members and with
businesses by organising or participating in meetings;
• Holding a mandate within a Supervisory Board of a company
in the ecosystem;
• Integrating a family governance instance.
Each year, the family has more than 60 family employees among its members, more than 160 company administrators, more than 40 entrepreneurs and more than 50 young people and students who will get their first professional experience in the AFM ecosystem.
Inspiring everyone to act for the common project is the mission of the Affectio Societatis of the AFM, which aims to stimulate this involvement.
In 2016, after renewing our desire to remain “Everyone in Everything”, the family wrote a collective common Vision for 2035: “Creating For People”, that is, “Enterprising together, by and for women and men”
Every 10 years, all family members gather to write a common purpose and direction. These exercises strengthen the family project and allow alignment with the projects of each company.
For 2035, the family is placing People stakes at the heart of its Vision, with a strong desire to be “committed actors in better living for as many people as possible”.
In recent years, the AFM and company employees initiated a new dynamic based on “collaboration” while ensuring that each company is able to maintain and develop their autonomy, strategy, uniqueness, and its usefulness.
People, Planet, Profit, Power :The performance of AFM companies is measured on these 4 criteria.
Since the 1960s, the Mulliez family has been able to adapt to changes in society and consumer habits, however its governance model is still based today on solid fundamental principles.
The family elects representatives (a president and their council) who work to achieve the Vision, in particular, by appointing the presidents of each business centers.
These principles apply both to family governance and to that of each business:
Give everyone what they need so they can wholly embrace their responsibility.
An executive instance is accompanied by a mirror instance, allowing a balance of power.
Decisions are made in the service of family project and entrepreneurship’s sustainability.
For an initiative to succeed, it must be armed with effective governance:
clearly defined, useful and unique
sharing a common direction with their team
in a posture of excellence and benevolence
In 2023, the AFM ecosystem had 20 business centers presidents, 14 of whom are family members. The links they forge between the family and the company they chair are important for spreading the family’s meaning and vision. They also share business issues to the family.
It is this governance that gives the AFM the capacity to regenerate, to advance, and to ensure the entrepreneurial spirit that has always driven shareholders.
+1,650 family members including 994 shareholders (2025)
