It’s official, the Commercial Court of Marseille announced the judicial liquidation of the San Marina brand on Monday February 20, 2023. The French brand had definitely lowered the curtain on its stores two days earlier.
It’s a hecatomb in the French fashion landscape. For the past few months, the brands have been closing shops in turn. First of all monochrome, which on September 28, 2022 is placed in compulsory liquidation. Then the mid-range claw Cop.Girlfriend which, after nearly two months in receivership, was liquidated at the beginning of February 2023. Two weeks later, it was the turn of the shoe brand San Marina to lower the curtain. Placed in receivership since September 2022the company owned by Stéphane Collaert and Laurent Portella would have, in addition to having made a “disappointing summer season“, encountered difficulties due to “the judgment of the Court of Cassation of June 2022, making payment of rents for periods of confinement until then frozen due“, according to information from the specialized site Fashion Network.
What does this mean concretely? The closing of 163 stores spread throughout France and the dismissal of more than 650 employees. To explain its decision, the Commercial Court of Marseilles affirmed, according to France Infothat : “No serious takeover project could be supported and the current leaders were unable to complete their reserve offer project for lack of investors.. For its part, San Marina wanted to send its customers a message visible on its website: “We would like to thank you for all the love you have shown us during these 42 years spent together! THANKS“.
Go Sport, Kookaï and Galeries Lafayette in danger?
Many big names in French clothing are currently in receivershiplike, since 1er February 2023, the mid-range women’s ready-to-wear label Kookaithe sports sign Go Sports and the French license of gap. These last two brands, which are looking for buyers, have in common that they belong to the group Hermione People and Brands (HPB) of Michel Ohayonwho also held monochrome until its liquidation. The Bordeaux businessman is currently experiencing many difficulties, since, as reported by theAFP in early February, three holding companies affiliated with his company Bordeaux real estate finance company (FIB) were placed in legal redress For “the non-reimbursement of more than 200 million euros in loans“, then on February 15, the FIBof which HPB is the branch dedicated to distribution, has in turn been placed in receivership, as noted Release.
Among the properties of Michel Ohayon through HPB, there are also about twenty stores Galeries Lafayette in the region, which are the subject of a safeguard procedure initiated by the Bordeaux Commercial Court in mid-February 2023 as reported Fashion Network. A measure that does not mean the imminent closure of these stores, since the safeguard procedure is a period (of 12 months maximum) during which the relevant court draws up the economic and social balance sheet of the company. For a company, this implies, among other things, that it no longer has to pay its debts. At the end of the observation period, either the health of the company has improved and the backup process completesor a safeguard plan targeting the company restructuring is set up, or it is placed in legal redress. This is obviously the first scenario hoped for by the 750 or so people employed by the Galeries Lafayette stores which belong to HPB.