Around forty restaurants are affected in Paris, Bayonne and Dijon: caught up in debt, one of the main KFC franchisees in France has been placed in safeguard procedure

ProNoïa, one of the main franchisees in France of the fried chicken brand KFC with around forty restaurants, has been placed in safeguard procedure, according to legal notices published on Saturday. According to its accounts consulted by AFP, the franchisee was caught up in the debt raised to finance rapid expansion which increased its losses. The Bordeaux commercial court opened this procedure at the end of September for the holding company and its subsidiaries, which notably operate the KFCs at the Gare du Nord and the Forum des Halles in Paris, Bayonne and Dijon and which employ some 900 employees.

The safeguard freezes debts while a plan is negotiated, which can spread them over ten years. In the event of failure, it may lead to recovery or even judicial liquidation. The story begins in Pau, where the founder of ProNoïa, Pierre Tritz, opened his first KFC franchise in 2013.

Ten years later, his group announced financing of 85 million euros, mainly from banks, with the objective of going from 26 restaurants to nearly sixty by 2025 and "capture more than a third of the growth" of KFC in France. According to the company register, the group has only opened around fifteen, notably in La Défense or the Parly 2 shopping center, in the Paris region. This is where the losses are concentrated: 4.7 million euros for the Ile-de-France subsidiary for the financial year ending at the end of March 2026, with debts which then exceeded the value of the assets by 14.6 million euros.

Multiplication of competing brands The group, still profitable in 2021-2022, lost 7.2 million euros for the financial year ended at the end of March 2025 for 83.9 million in turnover, and accumulated a financial debt of 60.7 million euros. Two financial years in a row, it did not respect the financial ratios required by its banks, which granted it an exemption at the end of 2025, in the midst of discussions to reschedule its debt. Contacted by AFP, KFC France indicated that its franchisee had initiated a “proactive” approach to “adapt and restructure its activity in the face of a demanding economic environment”.

The restaurants “continue their activity normally”, assures the brand. ProNoïa is not the only franchisee to suffer. The French activity of AmRest, another major KFC franchisee, which also operates Sushi Shops, saw its sales decline by more than 10% last year and in the first quarter, before "signs of improvement" in the second quarter, according to the group.

If chicken consumption increased by 5.6% in France in 2025, driven in particular by catering, according to the Anvol inter-professional association, KFC's competing brands have multiplied (Tasty Crousty, Popeyes, etc.). When asked, ProNoïa did not react immediately.

Machine-translated from French