Four companies have filed a takeover offer for Gap stores in France, we learned on Tuesday March 21. These are HEMA, the Dutch household goods brand, Shop Invest, a structure that owns the RueduCommerce and 3 Suisses websites, and two sporting goods brands, JD Sports and Intersport. The latter is also a candidate for the takeover of Go Sport stores, also teaches in receivership.
These four offers filed with the judicial administrators, FHB in Lyon and AJP in Grenoble, are partial. They relate to only ten of the twenty Gap stores and only concern a third to half of the 365 employees, according to our information.
The Gap brand was placed in receivership by the Grenoble Commercial Court on Wednesday 1er March, following its declaration of insolvency. Its current liabilities then reached 25.9 million euros. It had been reduced to 5.9 million euros by a moratorium granted by Gap Inc, which provides him with his clothes.
The chain was taken over in 2021 to be operated as a franchise by Hermione People & Brands, a subsidiary of Financière immobilière bordelaise (FIB) owned by businessman Michel Ohayon. At the end of December 2022, it was sold for an amount of 38 million euros to the Go Sport group, another brand owned by the FIB. To the chagrin of elected staff, who denounced this operation. Since then, the two companies have been placed in receivership.
Attempt to improve offers
Asked by The world on her plan to take over Gap stores, Karine Schrenzel, co-founder of Shop Invest with her husband, Olivier Gensburger, in 2011, did not wish to detail the scope, nor mention her possible interest in the online sales activity of gap. However, according to our information, Shop Invest is only a candidate for the takeover of Gap.fr and a few employees. This small group has nine sites, including two distance selling figures: Les 3 Suisses, since 2018, and RueduCommerce, since 2020, following its takeover from the Carrefour group.
The Dutch chain HEMA is interested in the points of sale operated by Gap. Despite the recent closure of a few units, the brand, which arrived in France in 2009, wants to double its store base within four to five years, according to the magazine LSA. It operates 63 stores in France. Asked about their recovery plans, Intersport and JD Sports did not respond to our requests.
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