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Our History

The inventor of the Street Furniture concept in 1964, JCDecaux progressively became #1 worldwide in outdoor advertising and continues to innovate for brands and people.

1964 - 1972

The origins

1964

 

Jean-Claude Decaux invents the new concept and business model of Street Furniture with bus shelters financed by advertising. JCDecaux is born and also a brand new 2 m2 advertising format.
Lyon (France) will be the first city to adopt JCDecaux's business model.

1971

 

JCDecaux installs its street furniture in Lisbon. JCDecaux Portugal becomes the first subsidiary in a non-French-speaking country.

1966

2 years after its creation, JCDecaux expands out of France and installs its bus shelters in Brussels (Belgium), where is created the first subsidiary.

1967

 

The firm establishes its headquarters in Plaisir, near Paris. 50 years later in 2014, the site welcomed over 700 employees of more than 100 professions, from the poster preparation to the R&D.

1972 - 1982

Innovations for brands and cities

1972

 

JCDecaux revolutionizes the advertising panels by replacing all the sheet metals with back-lit panels.
The advertisement becomes more colourful and luminous, rendering the finest details of photographs, which were just beginning to be used in advertising.

1972

Wishing to beautify its growing urban environment and to provide more services to the general public, Paris adopts in 1972 JCDecaux's bus shelters.

1975

JCDecaux designs new signposts and offers them to cities together with its bus shelters and City Information Panels. The French government would make them the standard for all signage in France.

1980

Designed to be perfectly clean and operational and already energy and water saving, JCDecaux's automatic public toilets are first tested and then installed in Paris in 1980 and 1981.

1972

JCDecaux invents the City Information Panel, a street furniture displaying city information on one side and advertising on the other. A new division is formed 3 years later to help cities create their maps and communications.

1973

JCDecaux introduces the seven-day campaign, which offers more flexibility and impact to advertisers.

1976

A new model of Street Furniture, the "PISA", is invented to combine on the same side city information and advertisement. JCDecaux invents at the same time the 8 m². This format will outlive the "PISA" replaced from 1988 by the "Senior".

1980

JCDecaux invents the Electronic Information Board. Cities can now communicate their messages in real time to their citizens, 24/7.

1982 - 1999

Design and internationalization

1982

JCDecaux installs its first furniture in Germany in Hamburg in 1982. In 1990, a few months before the reunification, JCDecaux would be one of the first companies to invest in Eastern Germany, with a contract with the city of Leipzig.

1992

Sir Norman Foster is the first designer to work with JCDecaux to design of street furniture lines. Over 50 designers would work with JCDecaux, Mario Bellini, Philippe Starck or Jean-Michel Wilmotte among them.

1997

Thanks to its close collaboration with the designer Philip Cox and to the quality of its maintenance, JCDecaux wins the tender for the City of Sydney. The Group enters Oceania.

1982

The JCDecaux teams designs the Murano bus shelter. 

1991

JCDecaux acquires the Morris Columns.

1994

San Francisco is the first American city to partner with JCDecaux, who installs its first model of automatic public toilets accessible to people in wheelchairs.

1998

Infoscreen installs in 1998 the Group's first digital displays in the metro of Vienna.

1999 - 2013

From challenger to world No. 1

1999

JCDecaux wins the first advertising concession in Singapore which used to forbid advertising in public spaces, and installs bus shelters on Orchard Road.

2001

JCDecaux becomes listed at the Paris stock exchange. In anticipation, the Group has set up the year before what is still today's governance: a supervisory board, and an executive board with a rotating annual chair held alternately by Jean-François and Jean-Charles Decaux.

2004

JCDecaux UK starts to challenge the conventions of outdoor advertising, and spices traditional campaigns up with bespoke out of the box elements. In 2004, JCDecaux Innovate is officially created.

2013

In 2013, JCDecaux buys 85% of Eumex, a Mexican company founded in 1995. Over 500 people join JCDecaux who strengthens its position in Chile and Argentina, and makes its entry into seven new countries.

1999

JCDecaux buys Avenir, the outdoor communication division of Havas Media Communication. The group welcomes the two new activities of Large Format and Transport Advertising.

2003

A new service joins the JCDecaux portfolio, to answer cities' needs for better urban mobility. The first self-service bicycles scheme is installed in Vienna, Austria.

2008

JCDecaux signs in 2008 its first contract with Dubai International Airport. Other deals in the region would follow, and JCDecaux Middle East will grow to over 250 employees in 2014.

2011

Then present in 56 countries, JCDecaux becomes #1 worldwide in outdoor adverting.

2013 - onwards

Develop interactivity and connectivity

2013

A new division, JCDecauxLive, is created at JCDecaux UK, aiming at delivering more interactive and engaging campaigns. This new experiential division activates the full potential of the latest digital screens.

2014

JCDecaux puts its networks at the service of urban connectivity by partnering for small cells deployment with Vodafone, Huawei or Alcatel-Lucent. Amsterdam is the first city to equip over 400 bus shelters.

2014

JCDecaux acquires Continental Outdoor Media. With a presence in 16 countries, JCDecaux becomes the number one outdoor advertising company in Africa.

2017

JCDecaux sub-Saharan Africa wins a 10-year exclusive advertising contract for Lilongwe  International Airport, the main airport in Malawi (population: 16  million), also known as Kamuzu International Airport. The contract included the installation, operation,  upgrade and maintenance of indoor and outdoor communication solutions. 

2013

JCDecaux begins creating bespoke digital screens: Waterloo Station (UK), Chicago, Los Angeles Airport (LAX)

2015

Smarter and greener bus shelters arrive in the cities, beginning with Paris new bus shelter equipped with photovoltaic panels, green roofs, USB chargers and digital information screens providing real-time and localised information. 

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