French bookshop chain Furet du Nord buys Decitre

The Furet du Nord chain of bookshops in northern France has confirmed its takeover of the Decitre group, which it describes as its alter-ego in the south-east region of France.

It claims the new group will be the country’s largest chain of bookshops, with 31 outlets and pre-tax sales of €150m. All the stores are in northern or south-eastern France, except for two in Belgium and one in Levallois-Perret, a suburb adjacent to Paris. The deal will strengthen the retailers’ B2B activity and the online sales of the two brands, Furet du Nord said in a statement.

The Lille-based chain had been aiming to expand geographically for some time. It tried to acquire Sauramps, a group of five outlets in the Montpellier region in the south of France, which went into receivership in 2017. The Montpellier commercial court accepted Furet du Nord’s bid, but the local appeal court overturned the decision and ruled in favour of Amétis, a property developer owned by architect François Fontès and his partner Bertrand Barascud.