Employees of Place du Marché (ex-Toupargel) demonstrate outside the Lyon commercial court, January 11, 2023 ( AFP / JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK )
A delay until Friday, but no hope of recovery: the judicial liquidation of the home delivery company for food products Place du Marché (formerly Toupargel) and two sister companies, i.e. 1,900 jobs in total, no longer creates doubt after a hearing on Wednesday before the Lyon commercial court.
Welcomed by the whistles of a hundred employees gathered in front of the court, the decision of deliberation in 48 hours was justified by the president of the court by “the importance of the file and the number of employees”, according to the secretary of the Social Committee and economy (CSE) Wafaa Kohily (CGT).
But “there is no hope of recovery”, she explained to the press. This was confirmed by the president of the company, Brieuc Fruchon.
“In concrete terms, our priority is to work on the preparation of this liquidation and to support the employees as well as possible with the state services, so that they bounce back as quickly as possible”, he assured.
Ms. Kohily expressed her “anger” and “total disarray” of “1,600 families who will find themselves on the floor” at Place du Marché, not counting the 300 employees of sister companies Eismann and Touparlog.
“The judge was quite attentive to the various requests in relation to the protection of employees. We are clearly asking to be respected in our dignity”, noted Ms. Kohily, demanding the payment of a supra-legal dismissal bonus of “100,000 euros per employee, given the heritage of the Bahadourians”.
The two brothers Léo and Patrick Bahadourian, shareholders of the flourishing Grand Frais brand, had taken over Toupargel in 2020 via the Agihold France holding company, but “did not deign” to be at the hearing. “Once again, the capital of some comes before broken lives,” she said.
After the takeover, the company renamed itself Place du Marché in 2021, with the idea of significantly extending its offer beyond frozen food, towards fresh products and groceries. Some products distributed came from the same suppliers as Grand Frais. The project also aimed to accelerate online sales, while the company built its model on telephone sales.
– Aging clientele –
But this strategy failed. “The average age of our clientele is quite high, many are over 70 and do not have access or do not know how to use the internet. The name change has also disturbed them. And in the end, the the vast majority came for frozen foods”, explains Lise Delaizé, CGT delegate, telemarketer for 24 years.
Employees of Place du Marché (ex-Toupargel) demonstrate outside the Lyon commercial court, January 11, 2023 ( AFP / JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK )
A hundred call centers thus meshed the territory, in particular the rural areas, from which part of the home deliveries left, routed from three major platforms.
“For many people in rural areas”, Place du Marché “it was also a human contact”, said a former client in a petition that collected nearly 12,000 signatures on Wednesday.
“The model has not evolved for 30 years, other alternatives have since emerged, notably the drive. Even in rural areas, people have become accustomed to + one stop shopping +, where they find all the necessary products in the same place. In addition, there has been no renewal of the clientele”, observes Yves Marin, partner at the consulting firm Bartle, specialist in consumer goods.
“Few are the companies from the mass distribution sector that have really succeeded in switching to digital. The main successes in e-commerce are due to new players”, confirms another consultant in the sector.
“A land of choice for brands like (that of hard discount) Lidl, the more rural areas are also very sensitive to price”, he continues, also pointing to the need, in home delivery, to respect precise schedules, which which, according to him, the Dutch start-up Picnic, which is setting up in France, is doing perfectly.
So many contrary elements which have fueled a drop in sales, which fell from 271 million euros in 2017 to 200 million in 2021-2022.
The liquidation, if confirmed, would lead to one of the largest social plans in recent months, after that of the textile brand Camaïeu in September (2,100 employees) and the 1,200 job cuts (out of 2,300) announced at the end of December at Scopelec, a group specialized in communication technologies.