Six months following the sudden death of Camaïeu, whose 511 stores closed their doors on 1is October, the clothing trade plunges into crisis. To the 2,100 licensees of the female brand were added the 680 job cuts at San Marina. The Marseille commercial court ordered the liquidation of the shoe brand on February 20. Five days later, Burton, a men’s and women’s clothing chain, closed almost a quarter of its 109 stores operated in France, without waiting for it to emerge from a safeguard procedure, while Pimkie prepares to remove 64 stores by 2027. The 2,160 employees of Go Sport are also waiting.
Placed in receivership in January by the Commercial Court of Grenoble, the brand was founded in 1978 by two brothers, Léon and Lucien Odier. Today, like Decathlon, it dresses us in sweatshirts and tracksuits as much as it equips athletes. Go Sport is in an ubiquitous situation, eighteen months following its takeover by Financière immobilière bordelaise, the holding company of businessman Michel Ohayon. The latter had taken it back for 1 euro from Rallye, a group owned by Jean-Charles Naouri. Justice must decide on April 18 on the adoption of a continuation plan or that of a recovery plan.
The 320 employees of the Kookaï brand are also in anguish. This figure of the 1990s sock sweater was placed in receivership on 1is FEBRUARY. Its employees fear the closure of stores, five years following its takeover by the Australian Maggi in Vivarte. André is also a victim of this group dismantled in 2020. The shoe brand is in receivership, for the second time in three years.
Despite the takeover of 55 of its 180 stores, its CEO, François Feijoo, has not managed to relaunch the founding brand of the André group, created by the Descours family, which became Vivarte under the leadership of investment funds in the years 2000 which riddled him with debts. Nothing worked. The brand founded in 1919 in Paris can no longer compete with the tenors of basketball, including JD Sport or Courir, and the online sale of shoes, at Zalando or Sarenza. Because the rules of the game have changed.
Tastes have changed
The French have profoundly changed their clothing buying habits. Followers of sales and promotions, converted to low prices, first on the shelves of hypermarkets, then in supermarkets like Kiabi, on the outskirts of cities, or H&M and Zara, in the city center, they continue to compress their budget spent on renewing their wardrobe: the purchase of clothing represents only 3.2% of their annual expenditure. This is 1 point less than the average in the European Union.
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