Paris Court Gives Gibert Bookshops Six More Weeks, Sets December 7 Hearing

Gibert, the Paris bookshop chain best known for its big stores on the boulevard Saint-Michel, has six more weeks to show it can recover. At a hearing on Monday, October 26, the Paris commercial court (Tribunal des activités économiques) postponed its decision on the group's receivership to December 7 at 10 a.m., at the request of the court-appointed administrators, ActuaLitté reported. The chain has been in receivership (redressement judiciaire) for about six months.

The October hearing was meant to settle whether the group's observation period, the stage in which a French court decides whether a company can be saved, should be renewed. Instead, Livres Hebdo reports, the court gave the company six extra weeks to finish its recovery plan.

What Gibert says

Gibert's management gave Livres Hebdo a statement: "The Paris court has granted the Gibert group six additional weeks to finalize the elements that will allow the court to rule on renewing or ending the observation period. A new hearing will be held on December 7 to examine the progress of the transformation of Gibert and its entities" (PT's translation).

Management told the trade magazine it is bringing in a new firm to produce "robust forecasts" based on the restructuring plan it has drawn up in recent months. It also said the plan is meant to let national processes be adapted shop by shop to deal with "temporary difficulties."

What the staff say

The union's account is harsher. Sophie Rachet, a CGT union delegate at Gibert Joseph Paris, told ActuaLitté that the administrators asked for the delay because they considered the projections from the firm hired by management "not reliable." According to staff representatives quoted by Livres Hebdo, the administrators found that the cash forecasts did not match the companies' real cash position.

"We find it abnormal that the six-month period was not used to produce a concrete recovery plan," Rachet told ActuaLitté (PT's translation). She said employees had already paid for the company's problems through job cuts and reduced hours. To Livres Hebdo she put it more bluntly: "We fear a slow dismantling of the group."

Rachet also says that about a week before the hearing, management told shops to suspend orders and make returns to shore up cash, a few weeks before Christmas. Two days later, according to staff representatives quoted by Livres Hebdo, the instruction was softened to "as many returns as possible," with orders suspended until the returns are credited. Shops can still restock from the chain's outside warehouse but cannot place customer orders directly with suppliers.

Management told Livres Hebdo the measure is "temporary," applies only to restocking, and is meant to clean up store stock so that each shop has a new and used offer in line with what it calls its "Gibert 2030" strategy.

Closures and job cuts so far

In July, as part of what it calls a "transformation plan," Gibert announced it would close four bookshops and a store-within-a-store: its Barbès shop in Paris, a corner in the Printemps Nation department store, the Librairie de la Place on the quai Saint-Michel, and the shops in Poitiers and Évreux. According to ActuaLitté, Barbès is due to close at the end of October, and the other four found no buyers and were liquidated.

A job-protection plan at the Paris shops led to 24 positions being cut and 21 people being laid off at the boulevard Saint-Michel flagship, Livres Hebdo reports. ActuaLitté has also reported supply problems since the chain moved its logistics to an outside contractor, ID Logistics.

Why it matters for writers

Gibert's Latin Quarter stores, which sell both new and used books, are a regular stop for students and readers in Paris. When a chain this size cuts orders and sends stock back during the fall prize season and ahead of the holidays, publishers lose shelf space and authors lose sales. For French and translated authors, December 7 is the date to watch.

Sources

• ActuaLitté, October 26, 2026: Redressement de Gibert : un nouveau délai pour la période d'observation (French; quotes translated by PT)
• Livres Hebdo, October 27, 2026: Gibert : le tribunal de Paris prolonge la période d'observation du groupe jusqu'au 7 décembre (French; quotes translated by PT)

Photo: Gibert Joseph on the boulevard Saint-Michel in Paris, July 18, 2017. Photo by ActuaLitté, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 2.0.