The American shared office specialist WeWork, in the midst of restructuring, will close eight of its twenty sites in France, the law firm August Debouzy, party to the negotiations with its creditors, announced on Friday. “All jobs have been saved,” assured AFP Me Guillaume Aubatier, partner in the business law firm.
In great difficulty for several years, the American coworking giant has begun a restructuring process on a global level, from which France, its third largest market behind the United States and the United Kingdom, has not escaped. The La Défense site, the group’s only French site located outside Paris, has already closed its doors at the end of 2023.
“The idea is to close unprofitable sites and increase the profitability of those that are profitable thanks to a double effect: a reduction in structural costs and an increase in the occupancy rate of the sites which will remain open,” explained Me Aubatier. “Certain sites were very close to each other and cannibalized each other a little,” underlined the lawyer.
WeWork’s historic sites, such as that of the Champs-Élysées or that of rue La Fayette, in the 9th arrondissement, remain open, he specified. “Contrary to rumors, WeWork is not closing in France,” insisted Guillaume Aubatier. “Quite the contrary, the idea is precisely to re-stabilize the business and certainly within 18 to 24 months to re-expand the scope in France.”