Is the sporting goods distributor Go Sport insolvent? The commercial court of Grenoble examines, this Monday morning, the file of this group founded in 1978, which employs 2,160 employees in France. The hearing, behind closed doors and which promises to be tense, began shortly after 9 a.m. at the Grenoble courthouse, not far from the group’s headquarters, in Sassenage (Isère).
A few staff representatives were present, declaring themselves “revolted, angry”. The leaders of the parent company Hermione People and Brands (HPB), for their part, did not wish to speak.
“Make an accurate statement of the financial situation”
The hearing is devoted to the examination of the file submitted on January 9 by the investigating judge, appointed at the end of December, to “make a precise statement of the financial situation” of the group and its subsidiary Go Sport France, with the help of its audit firms and its auditors.
The judges’ decision should be reserved and communicated later, according to Go Sport’s Central Social and Economic Committee (CSEC) lawyer, Evelyn Bledniak.
At the end of December, justice had heard the different parties for the first time, then instructed the investigating judge to shed light on the situation of the group. The points of view diverge diametrically between the representatives of the employees, who fear the worst, and HPB, which had bought it at the end of 2021 for a symbolic euro and appears optimistic.
Seventeen years of losses
The leaders of HPB insist that Go Sport “is not in a state of insolvency” and that its situation has nothing to do with that of Camaïeu, liquidated abruptly at the end of September. After “seventeen years of losses”, Go Sport should return to profit “from 2023”, assured Wilhelm Hubner, the president of HPB.
On January 3, the group appointed a specialist in the restructuring of companies in difficulty, Patrick Puy, previously boss of the fallen textile flagship Vivarte (Caroll, Minelli, La Halle, Naf Naf, Chevignon, etc.) to head the brand. , dubbed the “shock cost killer” by the daily Humanity in 2017. Its mission is to “pursue the necessary transformation” of the company, according to HPB.
Conversely, the employees of Go Sport, and especially their union representatives as well as the central social and economic committee (CSEC), are worried about the situation: auditors and an expert appointed by this CSEC had made observations severe. They had estimated that the company was in cessation of payments over the October-November period and were alarmed by a rise of 36 million euros in cash from Go Sport to HPB. The CSEC hopes “that the light will be shed”.
“Plague or Cholera”
Another cause for concern: HPB announced on Thursday “the acquisition of GAP France by Go Sport”, an operation presented the day before “with the extraordinary CSEs of the two companies”, according to a press release.
This acquisition, for an amount of 38 million euros, “aims to strengthen the Lifestyle and Sportswear activity of these two HPB brands, while preserving specific strategies”, according to the same source.
But for Christophe Lavalle, Force Ouvrière delegate and member of the CSEC, it is a “dishonest maneuver, a masquerade simply intended to try to hide the disappearance of 36.3 million euros, which have been raised since February from the group Go Sport to the HPB holding company”.
“We are not fooled, we know what state our society is in: today what awaits us is the plague or cholera, that is to say either a conciliation which will still be led by HPB, vis-à-vis which we have a total mistrust, that is to say a receivership”, he told AFP, pointing “in both cases (the risks) of social damage”.
However, Go Sport is “today in this situation only because we stole 36 million from it (…) it has its place in the French sports market”, he underlines. “I hope that in the event of embezzlement, justice does its job,” he concludes.