"Victim of the Aurelius vulture fund, the state lets it happen"
: around 150 employees of the office supplies company Office Depot France, in receivership, gathered on Tuesday in front of the Lille commercial court, worried about a possible liquidation in the spring.
Read also: Office Depot France's plan to become profitable again
The commercial court, which examined the cash flow statement during the interim hearing, pronounced the continuation of activity at least until April 20, date of a new hearing.
The German investment fund Aurelius, shareholder since 2017, was neither present nor represented.
“Everyone has concluded that there is a problem with the shareholder,”
said Sébastien Fournier, secretary of the central social and economic committee (CSE) after the closed hearing.
“We will be in a cash flow impasse at the end of May.
If we do not have a solution in mid-May, the company will disappear, ”
he added to the employees who came to Tourcoing at the call of the intersyndicale Unsa, CFTC and CFE-CGC.
Potential buyers have until Friday to submit their offers.
Specializing in office equipment and supplies, Office Depot France, which employs 1,750 people, currently operates 60 stores, e-commerce sites as well as three warehouses and 22 distribution platforms, according to management.
According to employee representatives, the company still had 1,871 employees in France in 2019, up from 1,584 a year later.
France excluded from Office Depot's strategy
A new management, which arrived in March 2019 with a transformation plan, aimed to return to profitability from 2021 while the group says it has suffered a drop in turnover of nearly 20% in 2020.
“France is not not in the pan-European, residual strategy of Office Depot ”
, admitted Guillaume de Feydeau, president of Office Depot France.
“The company has been experiencing losses for some time (...).
This cost of restructuring, the shareholder did not wish to pay. ”
“The shareholder wanted to put the subsidiary up for sale in May 2020. A solution has not been found.
So I decided to put myself under the protection of the commercial court
, ”he added.
"Aurelius vulture fund committed suicide at Office Depot France"
,
"Mr.
The Mayor, your silence questions us (...) 1600 jobs what do you do, why this silence, ”
could one read on the signs.
According to CSE lawyer Céline Pares, a preliminary investigation by the Lille prosecutor's office for abuse of corporate assets is still underway, entrusted to OCLCIFF.
