Fauchon

[7] In 1952, Joseph Pilosoff, the former owner of "Chocolat Poulain", "Ciseaux d'argent" in Saint-Cloud and "Aux 100000 chemises" in Paris, took over Fauchon and built up a partnership with Air France.

[14] Laurent Adamowicz, a former investment banker and business school graduate[15] with experience in the field of luxury products, positioned the brand on the gourmet foods market.

[16] He started a new partnership with Air France, and promoted young pastry chefs, like Pierre Hermé, Sébastien Godard, Christophe Adam, Dominique Ansel.

[18] Fauchon opened new stores in Japan, in South Korea, Taiwan, the Middle East, Europe, and finally in the United States[19][20][21][22] where it never had a store before, investing FF60 million (€9.2 million) in five years in the US market,[19][23] with a diversified investor group that included Michel Deroy and Jean-Francois Toulouse, former owners and managers of Dock de France supermarkets, the investment fund Matignon Investissements et Gestion, the publicly listed UK fund Intermediate Capital Group, and Barclays Capital Development France.

[27][28] The acquisition of the Flo outlets in Paris in 2002 and the opening of three shops in New York led to a sharp rise in income between 1998 and 2004, but a decline in Fauchon's net profits.

[29] In the spring and summer of 2003, Fauchon, heavily in debt, was affected by the collapse of the tourism market with the combination of several events: the Iraq War and the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime in April 2003, followed in May 2003 with the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus epidemic, and then the unprecedented heat wave in Europe that hit France particularly hard with over 15,000 dead in August 2003.

[43] Michel Ducros revised Fauchon strategy with all its suppliers and set up a strict sourcing, to promote the French savoir-faire[44] and develop exclusive recipes.

[33] Despite the lack of success in the United States and China in 2009,[47][48] Fauchon still aimed at international development on several big markets (Japan, Middle East, Asia and South America).

[50] Fauchon reinforced its presence through Asia in Hong Kong in 2014[51] and Thailand,[52][53] and invested in North America,[54] and the Middle East, where new openings are concentrated.

[58][59] In March 2018, the company launched Fauchon Hospitality to develop a network of luxury boutique hotels around the world, with a focus on Japan, Europe and the Middle East.

The historic site of Place de la Madeleine was hit hard successively by the attacks of January and November 2015, in 2018 by the yellow vests crisis, the strikes of 2019–2020, and the virtual disappearance of tourism due to the coronavirus pandemic.

[citation needed] On January 29, 2020, the Fauchon Receptions subsidiary was placed in compulsory liquidation followed on June 23, 2020, by the request for placement in receivership by the parent company which was pronounced the following week.

On September 16, 2020, the Bobigny Commercial Court approved the company's continuation plan which provides for the closure of the historic shops at 24–26 and 30 Place de la Madeleine.

In Cast Away, the 2000 movie directed by Robert Zemeckis, FedEx executive Chuck Noland (played by Tom Hanks) hands his colleagues a Fauchon bag containing fresh baguette bread from Paris before they board a plane.

Fauchon (Place de la Madeleine, Paris)
Inside the Fauchon store
The Paris location of Fauchon dressed up for Christmas, 2004