Place du Marché, formerly Toupargel, a home delivery company for food products, was officially placed in compulsory liquidation on Friday 13 January. 1900 jobs are lost.
The ax of the judicial liquidation fell this Friday on the home delivery company of food products Place du Marché (formerly Toupargel) and its sister companies, resulting in the loss of 1,900 jobs, one of the most important social plans of these last months. The Lyon commercial court had given itself 48 hours on Wednesday to render its deliberation concerning this company based in Civrieux-d’Azergues (Rhône). But the outcome was hardly in doubt, because no buyer had filed an offer, despite the interest for a time shown by the discount brand Tazita.
This Friday, the court thus placed in compulsory liquidation Place du Marché (1600 employees) and its two sister companies, Eismann and Touparlog (300 employees between them), according to its deliberation. “There is no hope of recovery”, assured Wafaa Kohily, secretary (CGT) of the Social and Economic Committee (CSE) on Wednesday. “Our priority is to work on the preparation of this judicial liquidation and to support the employees as well as possible with the state services so that they bounce back as quickly as possible”, had affirmed for his part the president of the company. Brieuc-Fruchon.
The 48-hour period had been justified by the president of the court by “the importance of the file and the number of employees in the group”, according to Wafaa Kohily.
Camaieu, Socopelec, Toupargel
The liquidation will indeed lead to one of the most important social plans of recent months, after that of the textile brand Camaïeu in September (2,100 employees) and the elimination of 1,200 jobs (out of 2,300) announced at the end of December at Scopelec, a group specializing in communication technologies.
The situation of Place du Marché deteriorated very quickly: the group had requested its placement in safeguard proceedings at the end of October, then had been placed in receivership at the end of November 2022. “Such a procedure in three months, by putting 1,600 families on the tile is ubiquitous!”, denounced Wafaa Kohily, pinning in passing the “deafening silence of the Bahadourians” on this file.
Employees of “Place du marché”, ex-Toupargel, gathered before the Lyon commercial court, this Wednesday, January 11, 2023.
“Capital before shattered lives”
The two brothers Léo and Patrick Bahadourian, shareholders of the flourishing Grand Frais brand, took over Toupargel in 2020 via the Agihold France holding company. They “did not deign” to be at the hearing on Wednesday, lamented the union official. “Once again, the capital of some comes before broken lives”, she added, pointing out that the unions were demanding “100,000 euros per employee of supralegal bonus, given the heritage of the Bahadourians”, ranked 90th fortune of France in 2022 by the magazine Challenges.
A failed strategy
After its takeover, Toupargel was renamed 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. But this strategy failed, fueling a drop in sales, which fell from 271 million euros in 2017 to 200 million in 2021-2022.
“The average age of our customers is quite high, many are over 70 and do not have access or do not know how to use the internet. The change of name has also disturbed them”, explained Lise Delaizé , CGT delegate and telemarketer for 24 years. And if the liquidation represents a real shock for the employees, it will also affect, according to them, part of the clientele.
“For many people, the Place du Marché delivery man was the only person they saw during the day, especially in rural areas”, said Lionel Massa, elected FO at the CSE, himself a delivery man in the Saint region on Wednesday. -Brieuc.