Concern is growing at Furet du Nord in Reims, threatened by legal recovery

It is a cultural giant that is faltering. According to “La Voix du Nord”, the Nosoli group, owner of the emblematic Le Furet du Nord bookstores and the Decitre brand, is preparing to make a decisive turning point. Next Tuesday, management is expected to announce the group’s placement in receivership. In financial difficulty, the company, whose historic cradle is in Lille, is looking for a second wind. In France, around twenty stores and hundreds of jobs are now suspended following the court’s decision. The shock wave will resound as far as Reims (Marne) since for 5 years already, a Furet du Nord has been installed in the city center. As everywhere in France, concern is beginning to emerge behind the piles of new literary releases.

This Friday, May 22, in the aisles of Furet du Nord, customers wander around, a novel in hand or ask for advice on a comic book. Between two shelves, sellers are busy, concentrated, unpacking hundreds of books that arrived in the morning in small blue and red plastic crates. A daily ballet that poorly masks their anguish. “We are doing our work as usual but our heart is not quite in it,” says an employee on condition of anonymity. “We have not received any specific instructions from management,” continues another employee. We don’t know anything. We don’t know more about what awaits us on Tuesday. »

Among the customers encountered that morning, the news of a possible closure left a bitter taste. This is the case for Nathalie, who explores the shelves for the first time. “This news of closure is super sad. I’m just discovering the one in Reims. But in Belgium, where I live, there was one in my town, in Louvain-la-Neuve. And it too closed, three years ago already…” she regrets.

“I’ve never seen this store before”

The one in Reims was established in November 2021, it was the first time that Le Furet du Nord attempted this challenge of setting up directly inside a department store. More than 1,200 m², dedicated to books and stationery, came to occupy the third floor of the former Galeries Lafayette, which has since become the BHV. At the time, a partnership agreement had been concluded to replace the old crockery and household object shelves.

A transplant that took well or almost. Because for some customers, the problem lies in the location of the bookstore, perched at the top of the department store. Tiffany, Rémoise, tells us she discovered the place today: “I had never seen this store before,” she confides while looking around her. “I usually never go into the BHV anymore. These are not the kinds of things I consume in this department store. On the other hand, I am a regular at Decitre,” she adds, referring to the group’s other brand.

Today, the question is on everyone’s lips: is this store threatened with closure? The uncertainty is all the more pressing as the local context is already electric. Le Furet du Nord is not the only one to sway in this historic building on rue de Vesle, the shopping street of Reims. The Reims BHV has already caused a lot of discussion in recent months. Last February, the arrival underground of the Chinese fast-fashion giant, Shein, shook up the image of this temple of traditional commerce. Since this strategic shift, the future of the city center department store has been questioned. Could the legal recovery of its tenant on the third floor precipitate a more global restructuring of the site? Answer next Tuesday.

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