2023-06-09 20:32:31
The Paris Commercial Court has ruled. JouéClub announced this Friday afternoon to AFP that it had been appointed by the Paris Commercial Court to take over La Grande Récré. The cooperative “takes over 750 of the 770 store and head office employees” of La Grande Récré, “89 of the 101 integrated stores as well as the 48 active franchise contracts in France and abroad.
Most of the staff of the stores not taken over will be reassigned to another La Grande Récré store, ”said the buyer in a press release. In total, JouéClub claims to “preserve more than 1,100 direct and indirect jobs”, for a takeover project whose “the amount is 50 million euros”. The Bordeaux brand thus preserves almost all jobs, slightly more than those saved in 2018 when the continuation plan was supported, due to the jobs created since.
Investment of 50 million euros
After several years of financial difficulties, La Grande Récré “will regain color,” said Friday Jacques Baudoz, CEO of the competing brand JouéClub, which takes over almost the entire group specializing in toys. “Twelve integrated stores are therefore not taken over, but the employees who are attached to them are taken over in order to be able to strengthen other points of sale, he declared. We also include contracts for “corners” at TotalEnergies and Club Med, but not the Casino contract, to which 120 employees were attached. »
His “ambitious” takeover project, which is based on an investment of 50 million euros, is also “a nod to history”, underlines Mr. Baudoz to AFP, because La Grande Récré had been a member of the JouéClub cooperative from 1986 to 1994.
Two networks that “will remain independent”
The cooperative, which defines itself as the largest French network of independent toy professionals with 283 stores in France, says it plans to “relaunch the La Grande Récré brand, which is a benchmark player for the toy market French “. The buyer wishes to specify that the two networks “will remain independent of each other, with a specific brand positioning, peripheral and family-oriented for JouéClub, urban and child-oriented for La Grande Récré”. “Most of the stores will remain under the La Grande Récré brand; afterwards, we will see if there are stores which are destined to pass JouéClub given their geographical position, ”he added.
In April, “at its request”, Ludendo Entreprises – parent company of La Grande Récré and which belongs to the galaxy of businessman Michel Ohayon – had obtained from the court the opening of liquidation proceedings concerning it, “with maintenance and continuation of the activity” of the toy brand “in order to allow its recovery”.
Thursday evening, in a statement to AFP, Michel Ohayon had expressed his “preference” for JouéClub “over all the candidates for acquisition”. The number of candidates for the resumption of La Grande Récré has not been formalized, but three had made themselves known. In addition to JouéClub, another heavyweight in the sector, King Toy, had submitted an offer before retracting. The shoe brand Chaussea was also in the running with a partial project.
Recomposition of the toy sector
Financière immobilière bordelaise (FIB), the holding company of the Ohayon galaxy, had been 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.
With the merger of the two brands, the French toy sector is thus experiencing a new stage in its reorganization, after the acquisition in 2020 of the Maxi Toys network by Kingtoy, then the takeover in 2022 of the PicWicToys brand (Toys “R” Us ) by the Irish group Smyths Toys.
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