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King Jouet is now also taking over the six Swiss Maxi Toys stores. Last summer, the French chain already bought the Belgian and French operations of Maxi Toys, which would already have brought growth to the chain.
Combined 45 per cent local market share
After the takeover in Belgium and France last summer, King Jouet is now buying the Swiss stores of Maxi Toys. The chain has six shops in the French-speaking part of the country, and King Jouet is already active in that region with nine branches. The 33 Swiss employees will also be transferred. Unlike in Belgium and France, where both names will continue to exist side by side, the Swiss outlets will get converted to King Jouet branches. The shops and operational activities will be adjusted from this month onwards to reopen under the new name at the beginning of May.
“From the very beginning, I proposed to our new shareholder to opt for a full integration in Switzerland,” Alain Hellebaut, CEO of Maxi Toys, explained the decision. “All 15 shops are profitable, but maintaining two labels in this small and specific market requires a lot of energy. Together we will soon have a 45 per cent market share in French-speaking Switzerland, or 9 per cent market share in the whole of Switzerland. Joining forces gives us much more strength and precision, of course, also in the light of further digitalisation.”
In contrast, the two brands will co-exist in France and Belgium, “wherever it makes sense,” adds Pascale Thery of King Jouet: “Their product range, their positioning and the characteristics of their customers are not the same; they both have their place there.”
Restructuring almost complete
For Hellebaut, it is also one of the final steps towards the legal restructuring of the toy chain. “We can look back on a very successful restructuring with significant job retention; 850 people out of 1,200 kept their jobs. 126 Maxi Toys branches have a future,” said the CEO.
According to both companies, the first months of the cooperation have been fruitful. Maxi Toys recorded performance in line with its targets from September to December, while the King Jouet group closed 2020 with an 8 per cent rise in turnover and a 0.2 percentage point increase in market share in France.
