The King Toy group, candidate for a partial takeover of its competitor La Grande Récré, announced on Wednesday that it was abandoning its offer, giving way to JouéClub, which will present its project before the Paris Commercial Court on Monday. At the end of April, judicial liquidation proceedings were opened against Ludendo Entreprises, the parent company of Grande Récré. The brand, which is part of the galaxy of businessman Michel Ohayon, currently has 140 stores, including 97 branches and the others as franchises, and just over 1,000 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 made official, but three have made themselves known in recent weeks: the competing brands JouéClub and Kingtoy, heavyweights in the sector, and the shoe brand Chaussea.
Kingtoy, which had communicated in the press on an initial offer to take over 45 stores and 529 employees, finally gave up. The strong sign of 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 point-of-sale investments. Significant measures are needed to redress all of this,” King Toy CEO Philippe Gueydon told AFP.
Estimating in particular at “200,000 euros” the investment necessary for each store taken over, he indicates that he did not want to “mobilize” and “risk” more means to improve the King Toy offer compared to that of its competitor JouéClub. “We are the only ones to offer a global takeover offer”, highlighted to AFP Jacques Baudoz, president of JouéClub. The sign, which is based on 290 stores, proposes to take over 90% of the integrated network of the Grande Récré, the 50 franchise contracts, the “corners” in other signs (Casino, Total, etc.) and guarantees the continuity brand operation. Its offer would preserve a total of “more than 1000 direct and indirect jobs”, she says.
As for Chaussea, which has nearly 500 points of sale, he told AFP that he had “submitted an offer on a certain number of stores” to be “transformed into Chaussea”, without further details. According to some media, Jour de fête, a company specializing in disguises 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 the midst of financial and legal turmoil.
