Groupe Royer ran 100% on wholesale — the court sold it in five months

Groupe Royer had been a fixture of French footwear since 1945: a wholesaler and distributor based in Javené near Fougères, Brittany, grouping some twenty companies. Its portfolio held the Kickers brand alongside Chevignon, Dim and Umbro, and distributed names like Lulu Castagnette, Little Marcel, Aster and Caterpillar. At its peak around 2010 it employed over 1,000 people — 300 in Fougères alone — and carried the Converse and New Balance licenses that fed its shelves.

The model was one single channel: practically 100% wholesale, no stores of its own, no direct link to the customer. The group grew by filling other people's shelves, and never learned who bought the shoes. As multi-brand city-centre retail eroded and low-cost international competition intensified, the wholesaler had no data, no direct sales and no way to steer its own demand. The New Balance license was sold in 2021 to raise cash and cut debt.

In April 2025 came the third social plan in twelve years — 60 positions cut, 38 of them in Fougères. On 29 October 2025, with 260 employees left and debt it called unsustainable against a persistently unfavourable market, the group asked the Rennes commercial court for receivership. The observation period lasted less than five months.

On 18 March 2026 the court approved the takeover by Chausséa, the French shoe retail chain: the group was broken up, with only 45 of the 187 remaining French jobs kept — around 15 of them at the Cholet site — and more than 140 dismissals. The Fougères headquarters and the Kickers brand passed to the buyer. A house founded in 1945 ended as assets at the bar of a commercial court.