On September 3, Giant France, represented by Jérôme Chagnon, Managing Director, inaugurated its brand new training center, the Giant Institute, in the presence of the subsidiary's staff, representatives of local authorities, business partners, resellers of Giant Group brands and journalists and brand ambassadors.
Source: CP – Photos: ©Damien Rosso
A 2-day program to discover the EcoSystem and the new VAE products from the Giant Group
Giant France has chosen to host a selection of journalists for 2 days of discussions around the Giant VAE ecosystems with Pelle Tobias Kil (Giant Group Global Marketing Manager E-bikes) and Edwin Mazier (Product manager Giant Europe), the Dynamic Cycling Fit postural study system by Wouter Lazet (Product Manager Technology Products Gear Bicycle Division) and tests products to discover the Giant Defy Advanced E+ Elite and the Liv Avail Advanced E+ Elite accompanied by Sylvain Chavanel and Emilien Jacquelin, both Giant France ambassadors.
It was at the end of the first day, in the late afternoon to be precise, that some 70 guests attended the ribbon cutting ceremony on the forecourt of the new "Giant Institute".
Giant Institute – the premises
These new premises are located on rue Paul Langevin in Aix-en-Provence, 200m from the offices that house the headquarters of the French subsidiary. This new space, at the heart of the Aix-en-Provence business hub, is the place dedicated to training resellers as part of the Giant Retail Academy, in person, but also online, since the place houses a filming space for all the content of the e-learning platform of the same name, dedicated to the entire network.
As Jérôme Chagnon pointed out in his inaugural speech, “ This is an ideal place for visitors. Close to car exitsroute wherever you come from, and on the right side of Aix-en-Provence coming from Marseille Marignane airport and Aix-TGV station. A place dedicated to the transmission of knowledge and aimed at the expertise of our resellers within the framework of Giant Retail Academy.
Giant Institute – the spaces
The place has several spaces distributed as follows:
• A friendly reception area of 70m² equipped with a bar, an ideal place for breaks and relaxation; also serving as a filming space.
• A large 78m² training room equipped with two connected interactive screens that can accommodate around thirty seated people.
• A 41m² “electrical ecosystem” training workshop. It has six equipped trolleys allowing staginstructions for assembling and disassembling different VAE systems.
• A training workshop dedicated to bicycle and VAE mechanics on 59m². This is equipped with 6 workshop stands that can accommodate as many pairs in training on the montagis and demontagare the different ecosystems of electric-assisted bicycles from the Giant Group brands.
• A 24m² Dynamic Cycling Fit room dedicated to the postural study system developed by Giant.
The Giant Retail Academy
The Giant Retail Academy (GRA) is the Giant Group's training program. The goal of the Giant Retail Academy is to develop the expertise of the reseller network for better consumer satisfaction. This international program involves all subsidiaries in this reseller training process. As you will have understood, the GRA is open to all resellers of the brand, whether they are Giant Store or multi-brand partner resellers.
Each employee, regardless of their level in the hierarchy within a reseller store, can have access to their e-GRA space, a personal training space, online. An e-learning platform based on the resources of one of the online training specialists, Myagi.
The GRA provides 3 training modules for its resellers.
• A module dedicated to sales for Giant Store staff: Pro Sales in the Cycle Universe.
• A Giant Store Integration Course module dedicated to Giant Store store managers. This module takes place over 48 hours, in total immersion within Giant France to acquire the basics of the Giant Store business model. Since 2010, 140 Giant Store stores have followed this training course.
• A module on the world of electrically assisted bicycles. This module aims to:
o Allow resellers to understand the ecosystem of an e-bike,
o Identify and intervene effectively in the event of a potential malfunction, master diagnostic tools,
o Master the Compatibilities between the different ecosystems.
An evolving program, which adapts to the arrival of new technologies.
Since the GRA was set up in 2021, Giant France has been committed to a Qualiopi certification process. A certification that supports the quality of the content transmitted to the stagiaire and learned by the latter and allowing companies sending stagaries to finance training costs.
Since the implementation of this module, 37 sessions have been organized for 336 stagiaires representing 251 points of sale in France. Giant France is working on setting up a module dedicated to training its resellers on Dynamic Cycling Fit, the postural study system developed by the Giant Group.
