In receivership since September, the women’s ready-to-wear brand Naf Naf will close 17 stores, as part of a new social plan. In total, 87 jobs are threatened in stores and 30 at headquarters, according to the CFDT union.
The decision was made during a CSE on Wednesday.
A brand launched 50 years ago
Positioned in the mid-range, Naf Naf is a French brand. Launched in 1973 by two brothers and now owned by the Franco-Turkish group SY International, before the new PSE it employed 660 employees in France, had 135 stores and posted a turnover of 141 million euros in 2022, “in growth,” a spokesperson declared at the end of August.
The company had already been placed in receivership in May 2020 and subsequently taken over by SY International, which is still its shareholder and employs 1,500 people directly around the world, and which had already acquired the Sinéquanone brand in 2019. It had started to restructure and eliminated 37 positions in June 2023 as part of a PSE.
The stores concerned are located in Mulhouse, Nancy, Bordeaux, Saint-Omer, Brest, Marseille, Niort, Levallois, Paris, Nice, Aix-en-Provence, Lille, Toulouse, Tours and Boulogne. They will all close around November 10, except those in Nice (end of January 2024) and Boulogne (end of March 2024).
The head office will move from Asnières (Hauts-de-Seine) to Bondy (Seine-Saint-Denis) in mid-November, and the PSE has been open to head office employees who do not want to change workplace, specifies Angélique Idali, secretary of the CSE and CFDT union delegate, 87% majority at Naf Naf.
Some employees have more than 25 years of seniority, it’s a shock
Angélique Idali, CFDT union representative
The trade unionist fears that the number of 30 jobs threatened at headquarters will increase. “Some employees have more than 25 years of seniority, it’s a shock,” she reacted. “In four months, more than 150 jobs have been lost in the company,” she lamented.
A hearing on November 7
The brand was placed in receivership in September by the Bobigny commercial court (Seine-Saint-Denis), in debt in particular due to unpaid rent during the Covid crisis. As is generally the case, it benefits from an observation period of six months. A new hearing is scheduled for November 7 which should allow the court “to take stock of the situation of the company, particularly on the financial part,” said Ms. Idali.
A sector in crisis
The ready-to-wear sector in France has been shaken for several months by a violent crisis. Camaïeu, Kookaï, Burton of London, Gap France, André, San Marina, Kaporal, Don’t Call Me Jennyfer, Du Pareil au Meilleur and Sergent Major… These brands well known to French consumers suffered from an explosive cocktail: pandemic, inflation, rising costs of energy, raw materials, rents and wages and second-hand competition. It was fatal for certain brands, which were liquidated, such as Camaïeu in September 2022, whose dismissal of 2,100 employees had a strong impact. Without reaching this point, still others are downsizing, cutting staff numbers and closing stores, such as Princesse Tam Tam, Comptoir des Cotonniers (Fast Retailing group) or Pimkie.
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