The French clothing brand Bayard, in receivership, launches “a public offer to search for buyers”

The brand, which has notably dressed Gainsbourg, Claude François and Johnny Hallyday, has three months to find one or more financial partners.

French menswear brand Bayard, in receivership, launches “a public offer to search for buyers” this Friday, to definitively overcome the Covid crisis, reveals France Bleu Bourgogne.

The Bayard company is an iconic men’s ready-to-wear brand, founded in 1925 (in Villeurbanne) and whose head office has been in Quetigny (Côte-d’Or) for over 20 years. It has been in receivership since 2023.

Its turnover increased from 22 million euros in 2019 to 18 million today and its market, the French market, is at half mast. Bayard, who has dressed Gainsbourg, Claude François and even Johnny Hallyday and whose competitor is brands like Armani or Hugo Boss, is looking for one or more financial partners, and has three months to find them and definitively overcome the Covid crisis.

The employees were informed of the group’s difficulties by Laurent Vigneron, general manager of Bayard. “In an emergency, we shot a video, leaving the court, which I broadcast”he says. “We also organize video conferences to which all employees can connect to allow them to react, comment, ask questions”continues the general manager.

It was Laurent Vigneron himself who requested protection from the commercial court and placed his company in receivership. “Yes, the first exchanges [avec les salariés] show concern. But yes also a great confidence in what we do, he confides. When you announce information that is not super positive, and you get feedback, a thank you for telling us things as they are, it feels good, and then it reinforces the fact that all together, We can get through this.”

To bounce back, since last winter, the brand with 25 boutiques and numerous corners in the centers of several large cities has reopened stores. In July 2023, its turnover increased by 10%, but the company needs money to support this new momentum and find new markets. Bayard plans to expand from 25 to 50 points of sale in France within three years to relaunch the brand and hopes to return to the 20 million euro turnover mark.

The general director and shareholder of Bayard is therefore starting a 15-day tour of France from next Monday. He plans to go to all of the brand’s stores to meet all of the 120 employees.

So that Bayard “cross 100 years”, “I need outside help, financial help, to enable this turnaround and the rest of the story for the brand but also for the 120 employees”, recalls Laurent Vigneron. But if within three months the company does not find investors, it will be “the worst”. It will be “a total liquidation, even if some messages are sometimes difficult to hear” concludes the general manager.