Go Sport taken over by the Intersport cooperative
The Grenoble commercial court has ruled. In receivership since the end of January 2023the Go Sport group (2,150 employees, €300 million turnover in 2022) will finally be taken over by the Intersport cooperative, according to a judgment rendered on April 28, 2023.
The latter judged the Intersport offer (15,000 employees; €3.2 billion in turnover in 2022) better than that of its main competitor, the British Frasers, operating Sport Direct stores (30,000 employees; €3.943 billion in sales in 2022). The court followed “the unanimous opinion of the prosecution, creditors and employees”, underlined the assistant prosecutor François Touret de Coucy. It should be noted that around twenty candidates for the takeover have come forward.
72 stores and 90% of jobs taken over
Intersport has thus undertaken to take over 72 stores and 1,446 of the 1,574 jobs in the stores as well as 185 employees of the Go Sport Group headquarters, i.e. a total of 90% of jobs. All for a price of 35 million euros. The Intersport cooperative has also pledged that there will be no economic layoffs in the next 24 months. A guarantee that its competitor, the British Frasers, was unable to provide during the hearings.
The sporting goods distributor therefore leaves the bosom of the Hermione People & Brands (HPB) group belonging to the Bordeaux businessman Michel Ohayon, who has already driven the Camaïeu sign into the wall. The latter had given up presenting a continuation plan. To the great relief of employees since “HPB had plans to close 15 stores,” said a union representative.
For his part, the CEO of Intersport Jacky Rihouet had promised to carry out an ambitious industrial project for Go Sport. Between stocks and investment needs, the group should invest between 140 and 150 million euros over the next 7 to 8 years.
