Owners and managers of the Atout Livre bookstore (12th arrondissement of Paris), Quentin Schoevaert et David King acquired, at the end of October, the business of the general bookstore Les Nouveautés, located in eastern Paris. At the head of the Reyvaërt company, to which Atout Livre belongs, the two partners were supported by Simon Gémonminority shareholder, appointed store manager.
“Simon was already an employee at Atout Livre. We wanted to keep it and support it in its evolution within the world of bookselling. It’s because we had the right person that we seized this opportunity,” comments Quentin Schoëvaërt.
A business opportunity
Since 2016, the Les Nouveautés bookstore has belonged to Dominique Moninalso a shareholder of the Les Guetteurs de Vent bookstore, located in a street near the first store. On the verge of retirement, the bookseller had therefore asked, already two years ago, the team at the head of Atout Livre to succeed him in his second business.
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“We had just finished the repayments linked to Atout Livre, so we were once again in debt capacityjokes David Rey. Especially since the Les Nouveautés bookstore was doing very well, with a turnover stable at two million euros per year.” Helped by the National Book Center (CNL) and Adelc, and after taking out a bank loan, the three partners were able to acquire the brand for an amount of 900,000 euros.
To continue working at Atout Livre, which has a branch for mangas, Quentin Schoëvaërt and David Rey have delegated the management of New Releases to Simon Gémon. A total of ten full-time booksellers, nine of whom were already on the original payroll, are placed under the supervision of the new store manager.
An unchanged team
“The current team has done a great job. It is a real living force, very attached to the place, on which we wanted to rely,” specifies Quentin Schoëvaërt. It now remains for Simon Gémon to export “know-how that has already proven itself”. To do this, the manager benefits from a loyal and passing audience – more than 200 customers per day – and a sales area of 180 m², welcoming more than 40,000 references.
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If the new team is delighted with the plurality of the editorial offering, it is nevertheless considering taking care of its collection, in response to a request from the neighborhood's customers. “One of the characteristics of the bookstore is the size of the windows which, compared to the size of the store, are very large. This is what will allow us, at certain times, to reserve entire windows for promotional discounts”exposes Quentin Schoëvaërt.
Apart from these small fixes and minor readjustment work, no changes are yet planned. And for good reason: the new adventure is only just beginning.
