Siben N’Ser, the owner of Planet sushi can finally take a break. The management of the Japanese restaurant chain announced on Wednesday that the Nanterre commercial court had accepted its continuation plan. This plan, which gives a company the opportunity to rectify its situation, will allow the brand to reimburse, through installment payments,
the debt of 16 million euros accumulated. “The leaders and employees of the group are relieved by this decision, which allows the company to get out of receivership”, a procedure in which Planet Sushi, which has forty-seven restaurants, entered in February 2020.
The implementation of the continuation plan is now the “priority of Planet Sushi”, which announces the adoption of a “new governance”: the current CEO Gilles Piquet-Pellorce (ex-CEO of Biocoop from 2011 to 2017) becomes chairman of the management board, while Siben N’Ser remains chairman of the supervisory board. This plan provides for repaying over ten years the thirty or so creditors (suppliers, tax authorities, Urssaf, etc.) of the group, and is supported by the latter “at 95%” according to management, which expects this year to amount to 70.7 million euros. of turnover.
22 new restaurants over three years
The brand, founded in 1998 by businessman Siben N’Ser, its 100% owner, has 28 franchisees and employs a total of around 1,500 people, including 350 in the 19 directly managed establishments. Planet Sushi is also planning a franchise development plan, with the opening over the next three years of 22 restaurants, said his lawyer Antoine Germain a few days ago. Six future franchisees have already signed and “a seventh signing is underway,” the group said on Wednesday.
“Our plan is based on reasonable but dynamic development” and after having gone through the “complicated period” of the health crisis, management is working “on reinforced management of material costs and the payroll” to improve the group’s profitability. , she said on Wednesday. “Most of the work has been done: our restaurants are almost all profitable and our franchisees are making money,” said this source.
In July 2014, the group had already benefited from a safeguard and had left it in 2015, after having seen its continuation plan approved. It was then the subject of an attempted takeover by the Polish AmRest, valuing the group at 42 million euros, but the latter threw in the towel in July 2016, citing, according to a close source, ” doubts about the interest of the French market, after the Nice attack ”. Planet Sushi is the second sushi chain in France behind Sushi Shop (144 restaurants), itself acquired by AmRest for 240 million euros in 2018.