The Paris Commercial Court ruled. JouéClub announced this Friday afternoon to AFP to have been appointed by the commercial court of Paris to take over La Grande Récré. Its offer concerned almost all stores and employees. The toy brand currently has some 140 stores and just over 1,000 employees including franchisees.
At the end of April, Ludendo Entreprises – parent company of La Grande Récré, belonging to the galaxy of businessman Michel Ohayon – had announced that it had obtained from the commercial court, "at its request", the opening of a liquidation procedure concerning it, "with maintenance and continuation of the activity" of the toy brand "in order to allow its recovery".
The number of candidates for the takeover has not been formalized, but three had made themselves known: competitors JouéClub and King Jouet, heavyweights in the sector, as well as the shoe brand Chaussea with a project for "a number of stores". King Jouet had finally announced its withdrawal from the race on May 17. "We are the only ones to propose a global takeover offer," JouéClub president Jacques Baudoz said in May.
Preserving jobs
In its initial version, the brand proposed to take over 90% of the integrated network of La Grande Récré, the 50 franchise agreements and the "corners" in other brands (Casino, Total, Club Med), and guaranteed the continuity of operation of the brand. This cooperative (290 points of sale) had said it wanted to preserve "more than 1,000 direct and indirect jobs".
See alsoCamaïeu, Pimkie, Kookaï, San Marina... Why these fashion brands are at their worst
Thursday evening, in a statement to AFP, Michel Ohayon had estimated that "on all the candidates for the acquisition, the court should choose the buyer who has (their) preference: the Bordeaux JouéClub. It should indeed preserve almost all jobs, a little more than those saved in 2018 at the time of the continuation plan support, because of the jobs created since then."
Camaïeu, Go Sports...
"We have financially supported the company in a powerful and permanent way: purchase in 2018 of 80 million euros of debt, purchase in 2021 for 26 million of the debt of the banking pool, thus providing the company with 106 million of equity, in conversion into capital," says Michel Ohayon. But "no longer able to provide new guarantees, so the decision was made to sell the company," he adds.
"We have put our financial interests on the back burner and accepted the abandonment of the equity that the shareholder has provided the company in order to preserve jobs," he said.
The Financière immobilière bordelaise (FIB), the holding company at the head of the Ohayon galaxy, was placed in receivership in February. It was the parent company of Camaïeu, liquidated in September, Gap France or Go Sports, both placed in recovery, the first having been taken over by JD Sports and the second by Intersport.
