Quebec business Juliette et Chocolat closes all its restaurants

Quebec specialty business Juliette & Chocolat has closed all 10 of its retail outlets in the greater Montreal area and Laval, blaming tough conditions for restaurants in the province, particularly since the chocolate shops reopened last summer.

In a letter to employees, however, the chocolate emporium's co-founder Juliette Brun, said the business "is not disappearing but restructuring to face the new economic reality."

That means it will focus on online chocolate sales through the company website and will continue to supply various grocery and food retailers with products, she explained.

Juliette & Chocolat was established about 20 years ago in Quebec. The company produces traditional and unique chocolates but also a wide variety of chocolatey beverages and baked goods.

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Brun said she was announcing the decision to close the restaurants "with great sadness and a heavy heart," but indicated that the business landscape, namely the level of debt repayment, was too high to manage any longer.

"Since the pandemic, the breakdown of costs for running a restaurant has changed dramatically: higher recruitment costs, salaries, raw materials and the impact of inflation on consumer habits have definitely had an impact on our results."

"But the biggest impact was the repayment of government loans obtained during the pandemic," said Brun.

She said they went so far as to ask the government for a moratorium to reduce the impact of the repayments but were refused, leaving the company with no choice but to close the restaurants.