The Nosoli group reportedly launched, on Monday 5 October, a tender for the sale of its Decitre bookshop network, according to BFM Business. L'opération would concern the companies Decitre and Decitre Interactive, which bring together business-to-business sales activities and a network of bookshops located in Annecy, Chambéry, Écully, Levallois-Perret and Lyon Part-Dieu.
The Nord-based group would also like to sell the company Générale du Livre, which specialises in selling books and services to professionals. Nosoli has been under court-ordered restructuring (redressement judiciaire) since 1 June. It explains that this decision should allow it to « concentrer ses moyens sur le Furet du Nord et son réseau de librairies », against a backdrop of a cultural goods market still considered to be heavily weakened.
A redundancy plan already under way
At the end of June, Nosoli had already announced the closure of 11 of its 27 bookshops, including seven Furet du Nord stores and four Decitre stores. These measures were expected to result in up to 163 job cuts. Furet du Nord had acquired Decitre in 2019, and their merger gave rise to the Nosoli group in 2022.
A sector under strain
The bookshop sector is going through a difficult period in France, facing competition from e-commerce and a decline in reading on paper. In April, the Paris commercial court (tribunal des affaires économiques) placed the Gibert group, France's leading independent bookseller, under court-ordered restructuring; the group hopes to relaunch itself in the second-hand books segment. In Montpellier, the Sauramps bookshop, an 80-year-old institution, permanently closed its doors this summer.
