In the end, 157 positions will be cut out of a total of 184. This Thursday, the hotel giant Accor, new owner of the Lido, announced several major upheavals for the future of the famous cabaret.
“The Lido review is over. The entire artistic platform, which concerns around sixty people, will disappear,” said a union source, while a source familiar with the matter specified that the establishment “will become a place for the creation of musical performances” without a permanent troupe. Most of the job cuts will be through retirements and reclassifications, according to these sources. One of them specifies that this device could be accompanied by the creation of 12 positions.
“There will be no storm”
The Lido, in the configuration desired by Accor, would be able to operate with 39 people and would create original shows under the direction of Jean-Luc Choplin, former director of the Théâtre du Chatelet, who was also a programmer for the Musical Stage. This project “will be done in agreement and in consultation with the social partners, there will be no storm”, assured a trade unionist.
A period of information-consultations during which the details and terms of this plan will be negotiated with the social partners will now begin.
80 million euros in losses
At the beginning of December 2021, Sodexo announced that it would sell the cabaret, a “separate activity in the portfolio” of its subsidiary Sodexo Live!, he said, which does not “fit in[ait] more in its growth strategy”. The collective catering group then explained that it wanted to refocus Sodexo Live! on catering and services developed with the brands Lenôtre, Bateaux Parisiens, Batobus and Yachts de Paris.
According to a source familiar with the matter, the cabaret has accumulated 80 million euros in losses in recent years.
A failed revival
Since the announcement of this transaction, the amount of which has not been disclosed, after months of negotiations, Accor had not yet communicated on its project for the legendary Parisian cabaret, which celebrated its 75th anniversary last year.
Created in 1946 by the Clérico family, this mythical place for Parisian nights was, like the entire cabaret and music hall sector, very affected by the long periods of closure imposed by the management of the health crisis last year: the turnover of these establishments has collapsed by 80% in 2020.
In 2015, the famous Champs-Élysées cabaret began its metamorphosis by modernizing its review under the leadership of Belgian director Franco Dragone, who had worked for Cirque du Soleil and organized spectacular shows, including that of Celine Dion in Las Vegas. However, this relaunch did not meet with the expected success.