French footwear retailer André has been placed into liquidation, the court announced on Tuesday. The date of cessation of payments was set at 30 June 2026. L'entreprise employed only 30 staff at the time of the decision.
Founded in 1896, André had celebrated its 500th store in 1983. This network subsequently shrank to a handful of shops, following a succession of partial takeovers.
Three receiverships in five years
André has gone through three receivership proceedings in the past five years. L'enseigne, then owned by online retail specialist Spartoo, was first placed into receivership in 2020, at the time of the Covid- crisis, before being taken over by 1Monde9, the company of François Feijoo, a former head of André. At the time he kept only around fifty stores out of the 180 outlets then in operation, as well as 13 affiliates.
André was placed into receivership for a second time in February 2023: only 21 of the 49 stores and 119 of the roughly 250 employees were taken over, this time by the Belgian company Optakare, run by businessman Karim Redjal. New André was placed into receivership for a third time in April 2025; by then the chain had only 16 outlets and 99 employees left, for revenue of just over 11 million euros. Karim Redjal subsequently took over André again in early 2026, after his bid was accepted by the Paris commercial court.
The brand has faced severe difficulties in recent years, against a backdrop of declining footfall in stores, competition from discount chains and the rise of online retail. The court document cites « problèmes avec le bailleur » and « l'échec des négociations » with shopping-centre giant Westfield to explain the failure of the receivership. An earlier takeover bid had already described a chain « confrontée à une conjoncture (...) en berne » and facing a « poids des loyers en hausse ».
After three attempts at receivership, André is now entering a liquidation phase, under the supervision of the Paris commercial court.
