“Exki is on the verge of bankruptcy”

Lack of professionalism

In The Echothe new boss of Exki, Stan Monheim (who worked for Autogrill), calls into question the old management (and therefore without naming him, the ex-CEO Frédéric Rouvez) in a rather surprising way, to the extent that this the latter is still a shareholder (up to approximately 10% of the capital). “Exki is in a very bad situation. She sinned through a lack of professionalism. Skills are not always well used”, he emphasizes. According to him, these problems “were already present in 2017-2018 despite an ebitda (Editor’s note: gross operating surplus) positive. In recent years, none of the investments made have brought in any money.”

Change at Exki: here is the new CEO of the Belgian restaurant chain

The new CEO also mentions an urgent need for liquidity. “Between 2012 and 2023, Exki released 69 million euros in liquidity: 23 million in the form of debt, 22 million via capital injection, the rest being made up of the positive ebitda recorded between 2012 and 2018.he said. Stan Monheim requested from shareholders a capital contribution of 5 million euros, raised in two stages: 3 million euros in May and 2 million recently. But this is not enough given the debts to be repaid in the short term (5 million euros). “This company is on the verge of bankruptcy. There is too much debt. We cannot face it without capital coming in. It is clear that something must be done.”he explained to us.

He is currently negotiating a substantial recapitalization with shareholders to relaunch the brand with 80 restaurants. We are talking about at least 10 million euros needed. Who will be easy to find? And only from current shareholders? “No comments”he tells us.

Two big shareholders

Exki has two large shareholders: the Flemish Dossche family (the owners of Biofresh) and Iris Belgium, a company behind which there are very wealthy French families. Each owns around 45% of the capital and each has deep pockets. According to the CEO, the talks should be concluded by mid-December. We will have to see “who puts what”, he simply tells us. What is certain is that he does not want to call on credit lines from public authorities.

Since he arrived, he has taken a number of measures including a readjustment of product ranges and the cessation of connected fridges in companies. He also did the big clean-up within the management committee where 80% of the members left.

Stan Monheim “wants to bring Exki up to date”

He nonetheless remains optimistic about the future of the brand. “There is a demand for fast, healthy and quality food. And the brand is promising. The core business is working well. So there is no reason why it should not work,” he emphasizes.