End clap for Place du Marché, ex Toupargel. The home delivery company for food products should be liquidated today after a hearing at the Lyon commercial court, at which employees from all over France are expected. They are 1,600 to remain on the floor and have been informed that the only candidate for the takeover of Place du Marché has withdrawn. It was Tazita, a distribution brand located in the Rhône-Alpes region.
Management hoped find solutions such as backing a partner with a strong reputation that could allow Market Place to find the balance necessary for its profitability “. Toupargel, then already in receivership, was taken over in January 2020 by the Agihold holding company of the brothers Léo and Patrick Bahadourian, co-founders and shareholders of the Grand Frais brand.
“A huge mess”
« It’s a huge mess, everything went very quickly, people are disgusted… “, denounces Françoise Charentus, delegate FO – majority union – and elected to the CSE, hoping, without believing it too much, that “the court grants a deadline and requires the management to obtain from the shareholders the payment of a bonus supra- legal, price of the damage suffered by the staff”.
An attempt at diversification that disturbed an elderly clientele
The company renamed itself Place du Marché in 2021, with the particular idea of significantly extending its offer beyond frozen food, towards fresh products and groceries. Some products distributed came from the same suppliers as Grand Frais. The project also aimed to accelerate online sales, while the company built its model on telephone sales.
The strategy failed. ” First, the average age of our customers is quite high, many are over 70 and do not have access or do not know how to use the internet. The name change also disturbed her. And in the end, the vast majority came for the frozen foods “Explains Lise Delaizé, CGT delegate, herself a telemarketer for 24 years.
A hundred call centers thus meshed the territory, in particular the rural areas, from which part of the home deliveries left, routed from three major platforms. ” For many rural people “, Market Square “cwas also a human touch “Said a former client in a petition that collected 11,700 signatures on Tuesday. ” The model has not changed for 30 years, other alternatives have since emerged, including the drive. Even in rural areas, people have become accustomed to “one stop shopping”, where they find all the necessary products in one place. In addition, there was no renewal of the clientele “, observes Yves Marin, associated with the consulting firm Bartle, specialist in consumer goods.
“One of the most important social plans of recent months”
« Rare are the companies from the mass distribution sector that have really succeeded in switching to digital. The main e-commerce successes are due to new players “, confirms another consultant in the sector. ” Land of choice for brands like Lidl, more rural areas are also very sensitive to price “, he continues, also pointing to the need, in home delivery, to respect precise schedules, which, according to him, the Dutch start-up Picnic, which is setting up in France, is doing perfectly.
The liquidation, if confirmed, will lead to one of the most important social plans of recent months, after the liquidation of the textile brand Camaïeu in September (2,100 employees) and the 1,200 job cuts (out of 2,300) announced at the end of December at Scopelec , a group specializing in communication technologies.