The King Jouet group, candidate for a partial takeover of its competitor La Grande Récré, announced Wednesday to abandon its offer, leaving room for JouéClub which will present its project before the Paris Commercial Court on Monday. At the end of April, a judicial liquidation procedure was opened against Ludendo Entreprises, parent company of the Grande Récré. The brand, which is part of the galaxy of businessman Michel Ohayon, currently has 140 stores including 97 branches and the others franchised and a little more than 1000,<> employees including franchisees. The commercial court will hear the candidates for the takeover on Monday, but will decide at a later date. The number of potential buyers has not been formalized, but three had made themselves known in recent weeks: the competing brands JouéClub and King Jouet, heavyweights in the sector, and the shoe brand Chaussea.
King Jouet, which had communicated in the press on an initial offer to take over 45 stores and 529 employees, finally gave up. The brand, with 240 stores in branches and 90 in franchise, had already bought the Maxi Toys network in 2020. In addition to the fact that "the toy sector has been shaken up in recent years", La Grande Récré "is a network in difficulty since" its first receivership in 2018 "which has impacted stores and investments in points of sale. We need significant measures to rectify all this," King Jouet CEO Philippe Gueydon told AFP.
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JouéClub offers "a global takeover offer"
Estimating in particular at "200,000 euros" the investment necessary for each store taken over, he says he did not want to "mobilize" and "risk" more resources to improve the King Jouet offer compared to that of its competitor JouéClub. "We are the only ones to propose a global takeover offer," Jacques Baudoz, president of JouéClub, told AFP. The brand, which relies on 290 stores, proposes to take over 90% of the integrated network of La Grande Récré, the 50 franchise agreements, the "corners" in other brands (Casino, Total ...) and guarantees the continuity of operation of the brand. Its offer would preserve in total "more than 1000,<> direct and indirect jobs," she says.
As for Chaussea, which has nearly 500 points of sale, he told AFP he had "submitted an offer on a number of stores" to be "transformed into Chaussea", without further details. According to some media, Jour de fête, a company specializing in costumes and decorative items, would also be interested in a partial takeover. Ludendo and La Grande Récré are one of the many subsidiaries belonging to the Financière immobilière bordelaise (FIB) empire of businessman Michel Ohayon, himself in full financial and judicial turmoil.
