New lease of life for France Loisirs

The Paris commercial court has approved the recovery plan for the France Loisirs book club and its four service subsidiaries, meaning it has been judged a going concern, ending a year of receivership.

The plan, completed last May, involved the layoff of 450 of the 1,350 staff in France and the closure of 36 of the 200 retail outlets. All the closures were in out-of-town commercial centres. France Loisirs has now been in the black since June for the first time in six years, and should report a small net profit for 2018 when it announces its results in April, Adrian Diaconu, chairman of Actissia, the France Loisirs holding company, told The Bookseller. "This follows annual losses of about €20m for the past five years," he added.

Sales fell to €187m in 2017 from €214m in 2016 and will have declined further in 2018 because of the store closures and dropping electrical appliances and other non-book items from the inventory.

"We have kept all the town centre shops and intend to concentrate almost exclusively on books, with just a small volume of complementary items," Diaconu said. "Our unique structure as a book club for big readers is both our strength and our weakness. Now we are telling our customers we are back and will continue to take steps in order to adapt to their changing tastes."

The France Loisirs c.e.o. is now Catherine Cussigh, who previously worked for Hachette Livre and French publisher Harlequin.