To Improve Profitability of CJ Foodville
CJ Group will sell off its bakery franchise Tous Les Jours to American private equity fund Carlyle.
The group is reportedly in the final stage of talks with Carlyle on the sale of the bakery franchise, the main business of its affiliate CJ Foodville. The two sides are expected to sign a stock trading contract as early as within this month.
Tous Les Jours is expected to be sold for about 270 billion won, much lower than CJ Group’s asking price of 400 billion won. But the group lowered the price as it had failed to sell the franchise through a tender in November 2020.
CJ Group decided to sell off Tous Les Jours as part of its efforts to improve profitability of CJ Foodville. CJ Group sold A Twosome Place, a coffeehouse chain owned by CJ Foodville, in 2019 and decided to transfer its Jincheon factory, a restaurant meal replacement (RMR) factory, to its another affiliate CJ CheilJedang in September 2020. After transferring the Jincheon factory, CJ Foodville now has only one factory in Eumseong, Korea which delivers products to Tous Les Jours.
If a deal on the sale of Tous Les Jours is sealed, CJ Foodville will probably hand over the factory in Eumseong, too. Then, CJ Foodville will virtually dispose of all of its production facilities.