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. Only the hotel, the Grand Café and the tea shop remain open. The closure of these two shops will cause 77 layoffs among the staff. 2021: Kyoto hotel opening and resumption of activities After seeing its continuation plan accepted in September 2020 and having closed its stores shortly after Fauchon began to relaunch its activities. More than two years after the launch of the first Fauchon hotel in Paris, it was in Japan, in Kyoto, that the brand opened its second 5-star boutique hotel on March 16, 2021. At the end of the year, the brand announced the upcoming opening of a third 5* hotel: FAUCHON The Riyadh Hotel in Saudi Arabia. 2022 : Training school The brand has announced the opening of the Fauchon school with training in food and service trades, based in Rouen. Fauchon in figures Competition Main competitors of Fauchon on the worldwide gourmet and luxury food products scene include Harrods and Fortnum & Mason in London, and Mariage Frères, Palais des Thés, Dammann Frères, Kusmi Tea, Dalloyau, Lenôtre, Pavillon Ledoyen and Hédiard in Paris. Many more competitors emerged in the last decade on the international scene. For instance, Maison Kayser had 20 outlets in Paris, 25 in Japan and approximately 140 internationally as of 2015. Ladurée also boasted about 100 outlets in 2015 – 25 in Paris and the rest in 20 countries. As for Lenôtre, the world-renowned company founded by Gaston Lenôtre, it had 37 stores in 8 countries as of 2015. In addition, former Fauchon pastry chefs Pierre Hermé, Dominique Ansel and Christophe Adam each opened their own shops competing with Fauchon in the pastry department. Pierre Hermé alone had 37 stores in 7 countries as of 2015. In popular culture In Thomas Harris's book Hannibal (1999), the infamous fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter, while on a flight from Europe to America, waits until everyone is asleep before producing a Fauchon food parcel of aromatic truffled pate de foie gras and Anatolian figs, as well as a half bottle of St Estephe, which Harris says he favours. 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