This Monday, the Paris Commercial Court will work on the takeover files for La Grande Récré, placed in liquidation at the end of April. One more company – after Camaïeu, Go Sport, Gap France – that its owner, Michel Ohayon, led to its downfall.
Initially, three players positioned themselves on the toy brand, which employs 1,000 people in 140 stores: two chains in the same sector (JouéClub and Kingtoy) and a network of shoe stores (Chaussea). Eventually, only two should submit an offer: JouéClub and Chaussea. Last Wednesday, King Toy, which planned to take over 45 stores and 529 employees, threw in the towel.
La Grande Récré “ is a network in difficulty since its first receivership, in 2018, which has impacted stores and investments in points of sale. Significant measures are needed to straighten out all of this,” said King Toy CEO Philippe Gueydon, who spoke of an investment of 200,000 euros per store to redress the bar. Kingtoy did not want to embark on the adventure when it took over 95 Maxi Toys toy stores in France in 2022.
In fact, JouéClub is the favorite. “We are the only ones to offer a global takeover offer,” says its president, Jacques Baudoz. The brand, which has 290 points of sale, wishes to take over 90% of La Grande Récré’s own network, its fifty franchise stores and its corners in other brands (Casino, Total, etc.) while keeping the brand.
Its offer would preserve a total of “more than 1,000 direct or indirect jobs”, indicates the chain. For its part, Chaussea, which has 500 stores in Europe including 250 in France, indicates that it has “ submitted an offer on a certain number of stores ” to “ transform them into Chaussea ”. The court will appoint the buyer at a later date.