The billionaire who created Smartbox: He's far-right and has disinherited his children.

ParisWhen he was 28, he had to move back in with his parents. All the business ventures he'd pursued had failed, and he lacked the money to pay the rent. "Those were difficult times," he admits. Two decades later, Pierre-Édouard Stérin is one of France's richest men and lives with a single obsession: "Save France." For him, this expression means bringing the far right to power.

How does a young man with no luck as an entrepreneur end up becoming a successful businessman who dedicates his fortune to promoting the most conservative ideas? What changed Stérin's life were the Smartboxes, the boxes of great gifts that have become popular everywhere. He is their founder.

The idea wasn't exactly his own. A small Belgian company had begun selling, on a small scale, only in Antwerp, gift cards that could be used at various entertainment venues. A friend of Stérin's saw them and spoke to him. A few days later, the Frenchman took a train to Belgium to propose to the company's owner that they partner with him to develop the same concept in France.

Failed Projects

At the time, Stérin was still living with his parents and had no job or money. Previously, he had first launched a video game distribution company that did very well until the internet arrived in homes, and then around twenty projects that hadn't been successful, from a loyalty card that brought together different brands to recycling Styrofoam and spiral notebooks so the pages could be removed and replaced. Later, he looked for work in the banking sector to earn a living, but no one would hire him.

Despite the accumulated failures, he didn't throw in the towel. And he decided to import the idea of gift cards to France, turning them into gift boxes for experiences. As he explained in an interview with the business magazine EntertainHis parents left him €5,000 to start the company in France under the name Weekendesk. It was 2003, and he was 29 years old.

In a short time, gift boxes experienced a real boom in France. In 2007, the entrepreneur decided to buy the company from his Belgian partner thanks to a €60 million loan from two investment funds and expand the gift boxes to other countries. The company changed its name and Smartbox was born. The company expanded to several countries, including Spain, and its products were sold in almost all supermarkets and large stores, growing at a rapid pace. Stérin became wealthy.

"Gift boxes are especially popular because the recipient always has the impression that they are worth more than the price paid by the person who bought them," the entrepreneur explained. Part of the company's profits come from gift boxes sold but not used, between 5% and 10%, according to the economic newspaper The Echos.

From The Fork to an investment fund

Currently, most of the gift box brands, such as La Vida es Bella, Bongo, Cadeaubox, Dakotabox, and Buyagift, are part of the Smartbox group. The exception is the also French Wonderbox, Smartbox's main rival. The fortune of Pierre-Édouard Stérin, the group's president and main shareholder, is estimated at 1.4 billion euros. The millionaire has also signed other successful deals outside of gift boxes. In 2008, he bought La Fourchette (The Fork) when the restaurant reservation company was on the verge of bankruptcy and refloated it before reselling it on Tripadvisor in 2014. In 2009, he created the investment fund Otium Capital, through which he invests in other business projects.

Behind Smartbox's success lies a fervently Catholic and conservative man. "My only ambition in life is to become a saint," he has said on more than one occasion. He calls himself a "libertarian" because he doesn't believe in the state or its institutions. He also describes himself as a "patriot," although years ago he moved the company's headquarters to Ireland and his family home to Belgium to escape French tax pressure.

The children, disinherited

Stérin, 51, has five children between the ages of 5 and 19 who will not inherit his fortune. In 2021, he announced that he did not want to transfer a single euro to them so they could grow up as he had to when he was young. "I don't want to ruin my children, I don't want to give them a cent. It's a real freedom to start with nothing in life. They won't inherit anything," he told the economic weekly. Challenges. "If they have great difficulties, we will help them," he specified. The millionaire assured that a part of his fortune will go "to the most disadvantaged, to the elderly who are alone and to people with disabilities."

What he did not explain in that interview were his plans to invest part of his money in creating Catholic boarding schools, in real estate projects dedicated to Catholic families and, above all, in mobilizing the right and far-right vote. Stérin, who in France is compared to Vincent Bolloré – a far-right magnate who owns a media empire that includes the television channels Canal+ and CNews, the radio station Europe 1 and Sunday Journal, among others—has been trying to buy a major media outlet for some time. So far, it hasn't worked out, and it only funds digital outlets like Factuel, which is linked to the far right.

Its major political project is to unite the right and the far right to govern France. It has created the project dubbed Pericles, through which it will invest 150 million euros over the coming years. The first objective is for Marine Le Pen's National Rally to win in 300 municipalities in the next municipal elections, in 2026. The second is for a conservative figure, from the right or the far right, to win in the 2027 presidential elections, "to save France."