Owned by the Swiss company Airesis, the sports equipment manufacturer Le Coq Sportif has been placed in receivership by the Paris commercial court. The decision, announced Friday by Airesis, includes a six-month observation period to ensure the company’s operational continuity while allowing it to overcome its financial difficulties.
“Le Coq Sportif relies on this procedure to respond to the challenges facing the brand, while wanting to protect its 330 employees and hundreds of indirect jobs,” Airesis said in a statement.
Critical economic situation
Le Coq Sportif announced in October that it was looking for “financing solutions” to ensure its sustainability. The request for judicial recovery, examined and validated by the commercial court, represents a decisive step. “This recovery period is also an opportunity for the company to be able to initiate and finalize discussions with new investors and strategic partners in order to sustain its activity and strengthen its economic model,” explains the company.
Le Coq Sportif is banking in particular on the international influence of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, for which it dressed the French delegation. Airesis hopes to capitalize on this event to establish the brand’s global notoriety, while highlighting its “French industrial know-how, true pillars of the brand’s identity”.
A loss of almost thirty million euros
Despite these ambitions, financial difficulties remain deep. According to financial results published at the end of September, the company recorded a loss of 18.2 million euros in the first half of 2024, compared to 10.5 million over the same period in 2023, and an annual loss of 28.2 million in 2023. The company received a loan of 2.9 million euros from the Organizing Committee of the Paris 2024 Games. In July, it also obtained a loan of 12.5 million euros from the French State, via BPI France Assurance Export.
The brand must also face a legal dispute with the French Rugby Federation (FFR), which is demanding 5.3 million euros from it for unpaid debts as a former supplier. Airesis nevertheless remains confident in the future. “The objective is clear: capitalize on the success of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris, which has already demonstrated the ability of Le Coq Sportif to behave as a global brand, while retaining and promoting French industrial know-how,” says the group.