Sonepar Announces the Loss of its Founder and Honorary Chairman Henri Coisne

It is with great sadness and emotion that Sonepar announces the passing of our founder and Honorary Chairman, Henri Coisne, during the night of December 15- 16 2022 at the age of 99. He was surrounded by his family and will now be reunited with his wife, Malou.

Beyond being a “great captain of industry,” it was his simplicity, his entrepreneurial spirit, and his integrity that will have marked his life. Henri, following a family lead, recognized very early the potential of the electrical distribution industry. In 1969, he founded Sonepar that today has become the world’s leading electrical distributor, present in over 40 countries with 45,000 associates.

Sonepar shares the grief of his children, Henri, Martine, Sylvie, Marie-Christine and Laurence, their grandchildren, and their great grandchildren.

Henri Coisne was born on June 21, 1923, in Armentières, France. He is the fourth of that name in the Coisne family, following his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. He was the third-born out of eight brothers and sisters: Marie, Adèle, Paul, Hubert, Jacqueline, Bernard, and Geneviève. He spent his entire childhood in northern France and passed his baccalaureate in math and in philosophy.

In September 1940, he was accepted into the ‘Higher Mathematics’ preparatory class at the Lycée Sainte-Geneviève, in Versailles. In June 1943, having passed the entry exams into both the École de l’Air (Air Force Academy) and the École Navale (Naval Academy), he opted for the former.

Shocked by the handshake between Pétain and Hitler in October 1940 in Montoire-sur-le-Loir (Loir-et-Cher department), and by an order given by the Vichy Regime Naval Forces for the French fleet to scuttle everything rather than take to the sea when the German army invaded the French ‘Free Zone’ in November 1942, Henri Coisne announced to his parents that he wanted to join General de Gaulle and Free France. In the summer of 1943, he crossed the Spanish border with a few friends before arriving in Morocco. He finally reached Casablanca in September.

A year later, in September 1946, he headed to Indochina, where he also led liaising and provisioning missions. In the fall of 1947, he married Marie-Louise Colombier (1927–2012), originally from Armentières, like him. Together, they had five children: Henri was born in 1948, Martine in 1950, Sylvie in 1952, Marie-Christine in 1956, and Laurence in 1962.

On January 1, 1948, he was stationed in Le Bourget, and moved to Paris with his wife. Following a detour at the Cognac base, he joined the GAEL (Groupe aérien d’entraînement et de liaison, Air Training and Liaison Group), for which he led numerous liaison missions across the entire French Union, from Africa to Madagascar, on board LeO 45 and NC-701 Martinet aircraft. 

Several months later, he returned to the Cognac base in France to command the 2/92 Aquitaine squadron. He was also responsible for promoting Vautour planes, presenting them to the Shah of Iran in the spring of 1959. At the start of 1962, he permanently left the Army to join the family Group becoming General Manager of Cellulose d’Alizay.

Following the sale of Cellulose d’Alizay, the family entrusted Henri Coisne with developing and investing the family capital in a new line of business meeting certain criteria: good development prospects, the potential to develop independently from banks and the State, limited cyclicality. 

In 1976, Henri Coisne became Chairman of Sonepar’s Board. Following serious health problems, he resigned from his position in 1980, in favor of José Ménendez. He returned in 1981 as Chairman of the Supervisory Board, while remaining very involved in the Group’s operational management. In fact, in 1982 he steered Sonepar’s first acquisition outside France, in Germany and the Netherlands.

Henri Coisne gradually began to take a step back from the business from the mid-1990s. In 1998, his daughter, Marie-Christine Coisne-Roquette, took over the business. A few years earlier, he had been appointed as a judge at the Paris Commercial Court. December 6, 1991, he is made commander of the Légion d’Honneur (Legion of Honor, highest French order of merit, both military and civil).

From 1998 to 2002, he was Honorary Chairman and member of Sonepar’s Supervisory Board, before becoming Honorary Chairman and member of the Group’s Board of Directors from 2002 to 2010.

Since 2010, he has been Honorary Chairman of Sonepar’s Corporate Board.