Groupe Flo owned France's best-known restaurant chains — and lost them to debt

Groupe Flo was a French restaurant empire. Founded by Jean-Paul Bucher in 1968, it grew to own some of the country's most recognised chains: Hippopotamus (185 restaurants), Brasseries FLO (33), Taverne de Maître Kanter (33) and Bistro Romain (14), plus iconic Parisian brasseries like La Coupole and Le Bœuf sur le toit. For decades, Flo was where French families went for steak frites and choucroute.

The trouble began after Bucher sold his stake in 2005 to CNP (Albert Frère) and Tikehau Capital. The new owners loaded the group with debt and expanded aggressively. By 2013 the Bistro Romain chain — 14 restaurants — was closed entirely and converted into Hippopotamus outlets. A formal restructuring was launched in November 2014, but the losses kept mounting: €45 million operating loss on €295 million revenue in 2015, then a €65 million deficit in 2016.

In April 2017 Groupe Bertrand acquired the struggling group, which by then owned 270 restaurants. The sale was a fire-sale: the group's debt had become unsustainable. Under Bertrand the business was downsized and the iconic brasseries gradually sold off. By 2021 net debt had reached €139 million. The empire Bucher had built over four decades was dismantled piece by piece.