Fast food franchiser acquires Le Pain Quotidien US

Le Pain Quotidien‘s American locations have a new owner: Aurify Brands, manager of fast food restaurants, will become master franchiser and will therefore manage the formula separately from the Belgian group.

Slimmed-down ‘Pain Quotidien bis’

The talks earlier this week between Le Pain Quotidien, which is in insolvency proceedings, and a takeover candidate in the US have already led to an acquisition: American franchising group Aurify Brands will become the master franchiser for the bakery formula in the United States.

Le Pain Quotidien currently has just shy of a hundred locations in the US, including one at Central Park in New York, but as they all were forced to close to the coronavirus crisis, all employees have been fired. Even before that, a number of branches in New York had been shut and there were plans to cut unprofitable restaurants.

Aurify Brands, master franchiser for chains like Fields Good Chicken, Five Guys and Make Sandwich, is now taking over the rights to the formula. In this way, Le Pain Quotidien wants to get rid of the financial burden, as the Belgian group has to reorganise within the framework of an insolvency procedure. The chain wants to continue in a slimmed-down form, ‘Pain Quotidien bis’, and is therefore also looking for a master franchiser for the British restaurants. As a result, the chain will soon own only its restaurants in Belgium and in France.