The Spodis company, belonging to the London-listed group JD Sports, was selected by the Grenoble commercial court to take over a large part of the activity of the Wilsam company, a subsidiary of the Ohayon group, which owns the Gap stores, at the price of 300,000 euros. In France.
“With realistic operating and financial forecasts, an ability to support working capital and equity investments, Spodis safeguards 214 out of 336 jobs, with a commitment not to make any redundancies for two years,” announced Thursday the parquet floor of Grenoble in a press release.
Only nine stores fully taken over
“The jobs taken over come from 19 stores, the head office and two “corners”, but only nine stores are taken over in full”, further indicated the prosecution, specifying that the court had “retained the proximity of the activities of Gap (trade of retail and clothing) and JD Sports (clothing retail) and respect for business continuity”, while the offer was not unanimous among employees, worried about seeing the Gap brand disappear.
Spodis remained the only candidate in the running since Hema France and Shopinvest, who had initially submitted an offer, finally withdrew. The Intersport group – recent buyer of Go Sport – had given up at the beginning of April.
The Ohayon group in turmoil
The court also ruled out the possibility of a recovery plan, in the absence of “written document supporting the project” mentioned by the company Wilsam, whose court ordered the liquidation, allowing the sale of the stores remaining at d other buyers.
A subsidiary of the Hermione, Brands & People (HPB) holding company of Michel Ohayon’s group, the Gap France brand had been placed in receivership in early March, with liabilities of nearly 6 million euros at the time. This liability rose to more than 34 million on the day of the hearing on April 26.
Acquired in 2021 for a symbolic euro, Gap France is part of the Ohayon group, which has been in turmoil for several months: after the liquidation of its Camaïeu brand (2,600 employees) in September, its head holding company, Financière immobilière bordelaise (FIB) s has been declared insolvent and 25 Galeries Lafayette stores have been placed in the safeguard procedure.