Courtepaille will not disappear, but many of its restaurants close their doors. The Nanterre Commercial Court on Wednesday validated the takeover bid for the Courtepaille brand by the Angevin restaurant group La Boucherie, the only remaining candidate in the race. Until then, Courtepaille had 144 directly operated restaurants and 71 franchised establishments, employing a total of just over 2,000 employees.
The La Boucherie group’s takeover bid concerns the Courtepaille brand, which will be maintained, and the acquisition of 87 restaurants: 72 franchisees, 10 integrated and 5 currently integrated that will become franchisees. There are 128 restaurants that will be closed. La Boucehrie told BFM Business that “almost 1,000 employees” will be absorbed by the Courtepaille restaurants, whose activity will continue.
The Napaqaro group, now the former owner of Courtepaille, has offered to reclassify about 500 employees within its other brands Buffalo Grill and Popeyes. Napaqaro announced last February that it wanted to sell the Courtepaille restaurants just two years after taking them over for 17 million euros, promising to infuse “new dynamics” into the brand.
family clientele
The “steak house” brand for family clients, recognizable by its rounded buildings with thatched roofs installed on the edge of French motorways, has experienced significant difficulties since the health crisis. Born in the early 1960s, the brand had its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s. Courtepaille still had nearly 300 restaurants in 2019, a third of which were franchises, serving more than 14 million meals.
Other restaurant players had positioned themselves to take over Courtepaille restaurants, notably the Bertrand group (Hippopotamus, Burger King France) and the US fund HIG Capital (Quick France), but La Boucherie was ultimately the only one to bid. of recovery. The Angers company has around 150 restaurants in France and abroad under the brands La Boucherie, Bistrot du Bouchet and Assiette au Bœuf.
Source: BFM TV
