BHV placed in receivership, the future of 700 employees on hold

This text corresponds to part of the transcription of the report above. Click on the video to watch it in full. A Parisian monument that has become an empty shell.

The BHV is nothing more than a shadow of itself. Wednesday October 28, no more luxury brands on the shelves and absent customers. The employees learned in the press of the judicial recovery of their institution.

“It’s a little sad about what’s happening, but what do you want us to do? We can’t do anything. We’re waiting,” shares an employee.

Wait for a solution for the historic point of sale in great financial difficulty. The jobs of 700 employees are threatened. For Stéphane Vincent, CFTC delegate at Le BHV Marais (Paris), a feeling of bitterness dominates: “Anger, there will be some later, for the moment, there is a little sadness to see this store which was still quite emblematic, really which was doing very well.

“A decision that management assumes, it is intended to be reassuring. Karl-Stéphane Cottendin, president of BHV, declares: “The receivership is a strategic stage of the restructuring plan. The BHV is 170 years old, it has weathered many other storms and it will weather this one.

"The arrival of Shein contested by employees and customersThe coup de grace, the arrival of the low-cost Chinese textile platform Shein, just a year ago to expand its offering. An idea widely contested by employees, the customers did not follow. "We shouldn't mix everything up, in quotes.

I'm not opposed to there being new brands, but hey, it was a little out of step with the history of BHV," said one customer, another added: "There were big brands that had to leave because of Shein. One day, out of curiosity, I said: "Here, I'll go." And it's horrible, you want to cry because everything is empty.

"The Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville opened its doors in 1856. It quickly gained its reputation thanks to its tools department in the basement. It then diversified into hardware, perfumes and clothing.

Today, its future is up in the air.

Machine-translated from French