BHV Marais was forced to close its doors at 4pm on Monday, according to the management of the Paris department store, which cites a temporary administrative regularisation linked to an insurance issue. Struggling for more than a year, the retailer was declared insolvent and placed into court-ordered receivership last Monday by the Paris commercial activities tribunal (tribunal des activités économiques de Paris).
« doivent fermer ce soir par précaution pour nos équipes et nos clients : une de nos polices d'assurance n'a pas pu être transférée dans le cadre du redressement judiciaire en cours », explained the chairman of the retailer, Karl-Stéphane Cottendin.
On Monday before 6pm, the department store's doors were closed and the lights off, with no one inside and no notice informing customers. Alerted by employees, the mayor of Paris Emmanuel Grégoire, the mayor of Paris Centre Ariel Weil and the deputy mayor of Paris in charge of employment, Nicolas Bonnet Oulaldj, observed that the Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville was closed. « Les deux administrateurs (...) se sont rendu compte que la direction n'avait pas payé les assurances, et donc que plus personne n'était couvert », explained Nicolas Bonnet Oulaldj.
The department store's joint union representation (l'intersyndicale) expressed scepticism about management's explanations. « on ne le (Karl-Stéphane Cottendin, ndlr) croit jamais », it said regretfully, adding: « Notre crainte, c'est que ça ne rouvre pas, on espère en savoir plus assez vite. »
In his internal message, Karl-Stéphane Cottendin stated that « Nous finalisons le nouveau contrat (d'assurance, ndlr), qui est en cours de signature et prendra le relais dès demain ». According to management, the closure is set to last until some point the following day.
