Barely taken over by JouéClub, the Grande Récré presents an ambitious recovery plan

2023-09-07 13:19:00

It’s already Christmas, or almost, for the Grande Récré. After its takeover by JouéClub, which put 50 million euros on the table to take over most of its employees and its stores, the distributor’s activity resumed.

JouéClub appointed to take over almost all of La Grande Récré

The new management team of La Grande Récré wants to increase in power » teaches him via « an ambitious recovery plan » et « powerful “Said one of the two general managers, Francis Ceron during a press briefing. ” When we took over La Grande Récré, sales were down 25%. In three months, stocks were replenished and stores restocked: we immediately saw the profits, we had a good summer and at the end of August we were back in the positive, we are on a turnover trend higher than that seen on the market of the toy as a whole.

« We keep the two brands which will continue their lives in parallel, each will negotiate its own commercial strategy, it is very important for their positioning and their different DNA summed up Jacques Baudoz, CEO of JouéClub.

La Grande Récré has more than 800 employees and relies on a network of 137 stores in France and abroad (including 89 integrated points of sale and 48 franchisees), as well as 130 corners » located in Club Med Villages or TotalEnergies stations. After one ” stabilisation »the brand’s management aims to ” start once more on a structured development “, with new store openings” planned from 2024 » and the search for « new growth levers – without giving more details.

In April, ” at his request Ludendo Entreprises – parent company of La Grande Récré, belonging to the galaxy of businessman Michel Ohayon – had obtained from the court the opening of liquidation proceedings. JouéClub was not the only one to covet the network which announced in March that it was looking for new investors. If the number of candidates has not been formalized, three had made themselves known including King Toy, which had finally retracted and the shoe brand, Chaussea, also in the running with a partial project. The sector was then experiencing a new stage in its recomposition, following the acquisition in 2020 of the Maxi Toys network by King Toy, then the takeover in 2022 of the PicWicToys (Toys “R” Us) brand by the Irish group Smyths Toys. The takeover offer was part of ” in a story common to both groups, La Grande Récré being a former member of the JouéClub cooperative ».

In France, the network of toy specialists represents almost a third of sales

In France, the network of toy specialists is particularly strong and represents 30.7% of total toy sales – compared to 20% in Germany for example. Hypermarkets account for 25.5% of sales, platforms such as Amazon or Cdiscount 24.8%, and multi-specialists Fnac or Cultura 11%, according to recent data from the Circana firm. In 2022, the toy market totaled 4.36 billion euros in turnover in France.

(With AFP)