Will the employees of the Maison de la lerie brand manage to find peaceful nights again? Thursday, October 5, eight candidates for the takeover of its parent company, the IFP group (International Franchise and Participation) in receivership, presented their offer to the commercial court of Chalon-sur-Saône (Saône-et-Loire).
A “grand oral” relating to the takeover of the 301 stores, including 35 directly owned, operated under various brands (Maison de la liere, Univers du Sommeil, Tousalon, Mobeco, Place de la Literie, etc.), as well as its two factories manufacturing in France, located in Autun, in Saône-et-Loire, and in Confolens, in Charente. In total, 203 employees, including 37 at headquarters and 84 in production.
If candidates are crowding in, it’s because the market is buoyant. The bedding sector grew by 3.6% in value during the first eight months of the year, according to IPEA (the Institute for Prospective and Furnishing Studies), while that of furniture falls by 0.5%. And, in 2022, sales of box springs and mattresses had barely fallen by 1% over one year, to 1.8 billion euros, including a third of the market made by specialized brands. In addition, the mid-to-high-end segment manufactured in France, in which the company is positioned, appeals to consumers and avoids the additional costs linked to imports.
Management errors
How then can we explain the fall of the House of Bedding? Through management errors and a tangle of a myriad of companies, which led the company to accumulate losses over the years. Excessively high costs borne by head office, poor operational management of branches which fall into the red… Some directly owned stores lose between 200,000 and 300,000 euros per year. To bail them out, the group draws on the royalties of its 266 franchisees, whose activity is holding up well and inflates their management costs. Finally, factories do not have the means to invest in modernizing their production facilities, with a significant part of their profits being sucked up by distribution entities and headquarters.
You have to go back through history to understand how the company got here. In 1980, Pierre Elmalek founded the Maison de la lerie, then became CEO of IFP when it was created in 1994. He joined forces, in 2012, with the Belgian group Veldeman, which contributed its industrial tools in exchange for 50% of the capital. of IFP. On paper, the model is virtuous, with stores which obtain their supplies exclusively from the group’s factories. But the debts quickly begin to accumulate. Out of the question for Mr. Elmalek to close integrated stores even if they are loss-making and, in 2015, Veldeman took the majority of the capital to ensure the continuity of the distribution branch.
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