With a clear view of the Ecluse beach through the big bay windows, the Dinard casino just renovated by the Barrière group is presented as a symbol of the renewal of the company, which wishes to restore chandelier to its game establishments and raise its hotels upmarket.
The casino was inaugurated Sunday by Joy Desssigne-Barrière, who became co-president of the family group with his brother Alexandre in April 2023 after a battle with their father and former leader Dominique Desssigne.
“With more than 8 million invested, this project is one of the most ambitious that our group has led in recent years,” said the manager.
New windows, extension of the games room and upmarket of the restoration offer, the project required ten months of work: “When the group’s management entrusted us with this renovation project, the ambition was clear: making Dinard’s casino one of the most beautiful in France”, summarizes the director of the establishment Bruno Toutain.
The group aims to renovate all of its 33 establishments, with a modulated envelope according to the operating periods granted by the cities (the higher the operating time, the higher the proposed investment level).
Thus in Cassis where the group has just signed for 15 years, he undertook to invest 8.9 million euros to redevelop the play space and create an entertainment space.
Renovations are underway in Bordeaux (at least 6 million euros), Trouville (12 million euros) or Ouistreham (8 million), says Clément Martin Saint-Léon, Director General of Games at Barrière, without specifying the overall size of the envelope dedicated to these investments, which casinos must share with hotels (20 establishments).
The renovation of the Dinard casino has attracted more customers since July 1 than the previous year, according to him.
“A casino that works is an airy place where you feel good and where you manage to park,” he said, believing that customers today want clear views that contrast with the dark and windows of traditional casinos.
A client accustomed to places that does not wish to give her name underlines that the establishment “came from afar”, with in particular a terrace previously decorated with synthetic lawn …
– internationalize –
When they arrived at the head of the group, the new generation, conceding that some establishments had been able to lose their luster of yesteryear, posted its wish to go upmarket.
“Last year, we recorded 1.2% growth in the gross product of the games (PBJ, the difference between players and their gains, editor’s note) which is better than the national average, but we cannot cover inflation, including competition from online games,” explains Clément Martin Saint-Léon.
Hence the need to renovate to improve customer experience, with reworked catering offers.
Since the beginning of 2025, the group’s French casinos have seen their activity increase by 2%.
Casinos represent two thirds of the company’s turnover (1.4 billion in 2024) the rest coming from the hotel/catering (the group notably holds the Fouquet’s brand and redeemed the Loulou restaurants this year).
Barrière also seeks to internationalize in games as in the hotel/catering: “We have too high dependence on the French market”, estimates Joy Desssigne-Barrière, indicating that 85% of turnover comes from France and the rest of the foreigner.
“We would like to double the size of our hotel fleet in the next ten years”, especially abroad, she says.
A strategy deemed relevant by Stéphane Botz, partner at Rydge Hospitality, a subsidiary of KPMG and a good connoisseur of the sector.
“The new generation is giving a fairly strong image of the group by deploying the hotel offer in several ways: by reworking their hotels, to reposition them and ensure that they are always very qualitative, and by increasingly developing on management contracts, which allows them to set up in exceptional places” and to be also less consumer of treasury, he judges.
Posted on July 21 at 8:27 a.m., AFP
