2023-08-09 00:21:25
A page turns on the company Juliette & Chocolat: after twenty years of activity and ten branches open, the company had no choice but to close shop on Tuesday.
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“The logical decision was to say: it is better to close, but close well, than to persist in staying in something and continuing to dig our hole”, indicates the owner, Juliette Brun.
Only 4 months ago, in an interview in TVA studios, the entrepreneur seemed to have the wind in her sails, where the company was celebrating its 20th anniversary at the time. “It’s always a revival. In my head, each time, I say to myself: what can we improve, what can we change, what can we do better? Then, to try to think outside the box,” she replied.
“We had too many expenses, versus the entries that we were able to make. If we projected ourselves in time, it was not going to improve, ”she explains.
Since the pandemic, the cost structure has changed significantly. Raw material prices, as well as labor costs, have increased; these reasons forced the company to stop its in-store activities, to focus on the online market.
The pandemic also forced Juliette & Chocolat to borrow money from a banking institution, something it had never done before, to compensate for losses related to the closure of restaurants. “We find ourselves today with loans with variable interest rates, […] so even if my sales increase, the interest rates also increase,” she adds.
Over the years, 10 chocolate factories have opened, mainly on the island of Montreal.
“Contrary to what you might think, it happens very quickly when you start discussing the possibilities of closing. Until a month and a half ago, I would never have said that I would have closed all my branches. That’s what makes the whole experience a bit surreal,” she says.
“As a consumer, you see the prices go up, then you say: I don’t understand, I don’t get more for my money. But we also don’t get more for our money. We try to follow all these trends that mean that we have to increase our prices to make it profitable,” she said.
The products will continue to be manufactured, since the factory will still be operational.
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