Union concerns at the Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville (BHV), management reassuring

The famous BHV has been experiencing difficulties for several years, aggravated by the Covid-19 epidemic and lockdowns.

More complicated access than before by car, hesitations about the target clientele and the right commercial offer... Its former owner, Galeries Lafayette, had carried out numerous renovations to relaunch it.

Before selling it at the end of 2023 to a small Lyon property company, Société des Grands Magasins (SGM), wishing to "concentrate [its] human and financial efforts on [its] core brand", he explained in mid-June.

Situation "never experienced before"

This change of ownership was accompanied by difficulties in paying suppliers, according to several sources confirming information from Mediapart.

One of these suppliers assured AFP that he was no longer being paid, "or only sporadically". His cash flow was "exsanguinated" to the point of considering "a bankruptcy declaration".

"Nine months after the takeover, unpaid bills continue to accumulate and brands are threatening to withdraw. A situation we have never experienced before...", warns the CGT on its website.

The inter-union (CFDT, CFTC-CSFV, CFE-CGC, CGT, Sud-Solidaires) of the department store, which according to staff representatives employs some 1.300 people, not including the many demonstrators, was received at its request on Thursday afternoon at the Paris city hall, by a technical advisor to Nicolas Bonnet-Oulaldj, deputy in charge of trade.

"The aim was to discuss the situation of BHV and the impact that a closure could have on the area," the union explained to AFP at the end of the meeting, deploring the lack of a "transparent vision of the economic situation" of the company.

Communist senator Ian Brossat, who told AFP that he was preparing a motion on the subject for the next Paris Council, was also present.

Regaining profitability

Speaking to AFP, the new owner of the brand, Frédéric Merlin, expressed surprise at the timing of this meeting, given that a BHV works council (CSEC) is due to be held on September 13.

The thirty-year-old assured that the department store "has been losing 15 million euros per year for many years", but that "everything possible is currently being done to make its business profitable" quickly.

As for the difficulties encountered by suppliers, according to management they are due to temporary problems, in particular the store's invoice management tools, leading to "extended payment periods (with a maximum of 45 days) for certain invoices".

The SGM management also assures that "BHV only experiences delivery problems for less than ten suppliers out of 1000".

The technical advisor to Nicolas Bonnet-Oulaldj's office, who preferred to remain anonymous, said on Thursday that she planned to contact SGM and Galeries Lafayette "to meet with them" and share "the risks that a closure would engender for the district" of the Hôtel de Ville.

SGM, which specializes in the rehabilitation of declining city center commercial assets, operates around thirty sites in France.

By the end of 2021, it had already purchased seven regional stores from Galeries Lafayette, in Angers, Dijon, Grenoble, Le Mans, Limoges, Orléans and Reims.

As for the Galeries Lafayette group, it had indicated to Mediapart in August that it had "confidence in the SGM group to find the necessary solutions" to the "current difficulties" in operating the BHV.