The Justice must rule this Monday on the financial situation of Go Sport, which is of great concern to the representatives of the 2,000 or more employees of the chain of stores, although its parent company wants to be reassuring. A hearing is scheduled for 9 am before Grenoble’s commercial court, the local prosecutor’s office that summoned management said. Objective: to verify that the company will not be in default in the short term.
“Go Sport is not in default,” the Hermione, People and Brands (HPB) group, its parent company, assured in early December. And yet, the alerts multiply. The elected representatives of the Economic and Social Committee (CSE) and the CGT, FO, CFE-CGC, CFTC and CFDT unions thus requested in early December the appointment of a judicial administrator within the framework of an economic alert right procedure.
During a first hearing held last Tuesday after this summons from the CSE, HPB “expressed the will to request the opening of a conciliation procedure,” the CGT explained on Friday in a press release. Conciliation allows a company in difficulty to negotiate with its creditors on a confidential basis, under the aegis of a conciliator appointed by the president of the commercial court.
The decision on this procedure, different from Monday, will be taken on December 27, according to a union source. HPB is the distribution arm of Financière immobilière bordelaise (FIB), an investment fund run by businessman Michel Ohayon. Contacted by AFP, the group did not want to communicate before Monday’s hearing.
“Panic”
According to the CGT, the auditors “refused to validate the economic data” of Go Sport during a general meeting “while they stipulated the state of cessation of payments from the months of October and November.” “Everyone is in a panic,” a union representative said on condition of anonymity. “We have very few products on the shelves, the suppliers do not want to supply us.”
The workers’ representatives fear that the “more than 2,000 employees of Go Sport” “suffer the fate of the employees of Camaieu”, the ready-to-wear brand liquidated at the end of September and also owned by HPB, according to a statement sent to AFP in early December.
The group had tried to calm down calmly. “Go Sport has honored more than 70 million euros in exceptional charges” but “these charges will no longer weigh in 2023, which will allow investment capacity and profitability to be recovered after years of losses,” HPB had assured. “No amalgamation should be made between Camaieu and Go Sport”, a “healthy company”, according to the shareholder, who affirms that the prosecutor’s request “is based on erroneous information in the process of being rectified”.
At losses for years, Go Sport, founded in 1978 and based in Sassenage in Isère, had been bought at the end of 2021 for a symbolic euro by HPB from the parent company of the Casino food distribution group, the Rallye company, even in big measure. in debt. Bordeaux businessman Michel Ohayon is also present in the luxury hotel industry (Grand Hôtel de Bordeaux, Waldorf Astoria Trianon Palace Versailles) and wine. He has made a name for himself in recent years by buying many retail brands, often at low prices or in court: Go Sport, Camaieu but also some Galeries Lafayette stores in France, La Grande Récré, Gap France and Café Légal. .
Source: BFM TV
