the heirs of the founding family show their preference for Elior

While the commercial court examines the takeover offers from Maison Dalloyau, according to information from BFM Business, the family at the helm of the Parisian caterer until 2014 has already made its choice.

It is this Monday that the commercial court examines the takeover offers from the Dalloyau house. Several serious candidates are in the running, notably Accor, the Bertrand group and Elior. But the founding family of Dalloyau, which has not been in charge for 10 years, displays a clear preference for the collective catering group.

It remains to be seen who will be chosen. What is certain for Christelle Bernardé, former general director of Dalloyau, is that the more than century-old house has everything to rise from its ashes. Above all, she is very critical of investment funds, which she says are fans of marketing figures and short-term profitability. “They ransacked this house,” she denounces about her former financial partner, the Perceva fund.

Backtracking. In 2010, Dalloyau needed its own funds. The brand has liquidity problems due to the financial crisis which caused reception activity to fall by 85%. The family then brought an outside shareholder into the company for the first time. Half of the capital and seats on the supervisory board. In 2014, profitability returned, but the family and the fund disagreed on the strategy to follow. Perceva Capital buys all the shares of the pastry chef-caterer. “It ended badly, they threw us out,” says Christelle Bernardé.

Several marks of interest

10 years later, the results are not good. The gastronomic house, three centuries old, is only a shadow of itself. Only 5 stores, two franchisees and around thirty corners. The turnover fell below 10 million euros. The emblematic house, which served Louis XIV, is today almost unknown to the younger generation and international clientele.

Dalloyau was placed in receivership at the beginning of August. Despite everything, the brand remains beautiful and a guarantor of know-how. It interests several candidates for takeover. In the ranks, the services and catering group Elior which says it wants to invest one million euros in the modernization of stores and kitchens. But also Potel and Chabot, in the Accor galaxy, which would consider opening points of sale in the group’s hotels internationally. And then the Bertrand Group, in catering. He already owns the Angelina tea rooms and he too would like to add a prestigious brand to his collection of brands. Other smaller candidates have made themselves known, such as the luxury hotel group Dokhan’s or the caterer The Taste Club, a young Parisian event caterer.

Iconic products

For Christelle Bernardé, it is obvious that only a family business is able to understand the DNA of Dalloyau, a true living heritage, whose chefs are capable of spending a year refining the recipe for the chocolate nun. “We need a captain who energizes the teams, gives them confidence,” adds the former general director, “governance with a real vision with realistic and achievable objectives.”

For her, Elior is the candidate best suited to fulfill this mission. Not really the Elior group, by the way, but rather the Derichebourg family who bought it in April 2023 and who restructured the collective catering giant, while it was going through the most serious crisis in its history.

“Dalloyau is the Hermès of gastronomy,” explains Christelle Bernardé. She is part of the Colbert committee, some of its products have become iconic.” It was his grandparents who invented the Opéra cake in 1955, a classic of French pastry. “The company needs to be reincarnated and regain its notoriety and exclusivity.” Christelle Bernardé denies any conflict of interest. She does not personally know the potential buyers but she is carefully following the ups and downs of the oldest caterer in France, a part of her family history.