Liquidation of Chaussexpo: the commercial court validates the takeover of 71 stores out of 176 by Chaussea

The Lille commercial court validated the takeover of 71 stores out of 176 of the northern brand Chaussexpo by Chaussea this Wednesday.

The low-cost shoe brand had three weeks to study this takeover offer, validated on February 21 by the Lille commercial court. During his first proposal, Chaussea initially proposed taking over 21 stores out of 176, which was considered insufficient.

During this period of time, the company’s management and the CSE had to work on developing the employment protection plan (PSE). More than half of employees are threatened with redundancy. In addition to the stores which will not be taken over, Chaussea’s offer did not include logistics and administration employees.

A judicial liquidation at the beginning of January

At the beginning of January, the Lille commercial court had declared the liquidation of the Desmazières companyparent company of Chaussexpo, by granting it continued activity until March 15, the time to find a buyer.

“The successive difficulties (closures due to Covid, significant increases in transport costs, energy, rents) and the decline in the purchasing power of our customers in a context of high inflation, have gradually weakened our cash flow for reach an impasse at the start of 2024,” explained Cyril Goulet, general manager of Desmazières. The company had declared itself insolvent the previous week.

Desmazières, created in 1815 and which opened its first Chaussexpo store in 1987 in the North, has 750 employees and 177 stores. The company had already undergone two social plans in recent years, in 2017 (closure of 29 stores and departure of more than 80 employees) then in 2018, following legal receivership (35 stores closed, 124 job cuts).