The encyclopedia · Finance & Accounting · Financial decision · 2024
Burton of London is liquidated, three years after a one-euro buyout
French ready-to-wear chain Burton of London is liquidated in Feb 2024, shrunk from 658 to 200 staff since Thierry Le Guénic bought it for one euro in 2020
Burton of London · 2024-02-13
What happened
Burton of London was a French ready-to-wear retail chain whose main shareholder was businessman Thierry Le Guénic, who acquired the company in November 2020 for one symbolic euro through his company Ulysse Capital. At the time of the buyout it had 658 employees and 122 stores across France.
The company benefited from a sauvegarde procedure and was then placed in redressement judiciaire during the summer of 2023. On Tuesday 13 February 2024 the tribunal de commerce de Paris pronounced its liquidation judiciaire. By then it employed about 200 people and ran 46 stores, which had closed the previous Saturday; the head office closed on Monday.
The CFTC union blamed the shareholder: it said Le Guénic refused to inject any capital despite the state aid he received, and took decisions that favoured other companies in his group at Burton of London's expense. This came after 228 layoffs in the first social plan in February 2023, followed by roughly 200 more.
Why it happened
- The shareholder refused to inject capital despite state aid, starving the company of the funds it needed to survive
- Decisions taken in favour of the owner's other group companies came at Burton of London's expense
- The collapse of the broader French ready-to-wear sector, hit by the pandemic, inflation and fast fashion, left no margin for recovery
The lesson
Handing a failing chain to an owner who will not invest is a death sentence. A one-euro buyout with no real capital is a takeover in name only — refusing to invest despite state aid.
Aftermath
The tribunal de commerce de Paris pronounced the liquidation of Burton of London on 13 February 2024. Its 46 stores had closed the previous Saturday and the head office on Monday, with about 200 remaining staff facing job cuts on top of the 228 already laid off in February 2023.
Sources
- BFM Business — L'enseigne de prêt-à-porter Burton of London liquidée
- Les Echos — L'enseigne de prêt-à-porter Burton of London liquidée
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