French fashion brands are having a string of difficulties. The latest: Naf Naf, who has just requested his placement in receivership.
The carnage continues in the ranks of the hexagonal fashion. Since the pandemic Covid-19the claws are numerous to face economic difficulties. Repeated confinements, closures of non-essential businesses, inflation, emergence of ultra fast fashion, private sales and almost continuous sales… For companies in the sector, surviving is increasingly complicated. Even behemoths, like the Japanese giant fast-retailing, are undermined in France. In June 2023, the group thus planned to remove a third of its Princesse tam.tam and Comptoir des Cotonniers stores.
The same month, the label jennyfer was placed in receivership. Earlier in the year it was the shoemaker San Marina which permanently closed the doors of its 163 stores. The third quarter of 2023 does not end on a better note, since it is the turn of NAF Naf to experience turbulence. According to information from the specialized site Fashion Networkthe brand requested its placement in receivership Tuesday, August 29. Selçuk Yilmaz, the president of Sy, the Franco-Turkish group which owns the sign, specified to the aforementioned French media: “This choice is made in order to allow Naf Naf to implement all the necessary measures to ensure business continuity”. Because, if it confirms the poor health of a company, receivership does not mean its inevitable death. On the contrary, with the help of a director, the company takes stock of its debts, its payroll and its future prospects. Depending on the observations made during this period, which can last up to 18 months, the company can be sold, liquidated, authorized to continue its activity or encouraged to put in place a recovery plan.
Naf Naf struggles to position itself
In May 2020, it was this last scenario that had been chosen for Naf Naf, already in a bad patch. More recently, the sign had to separate from 27 employees officiating at its headquarters located in Asnières-sur-Seine. This time it’s something 868 people which would be threatened if the brand were to go into liquidation. After fifty years of existence, the clothing company, launched by two brothers in the Parisian district of Sentier, has 215 shops. To celebrate its half-century of activity, the brand imagined, last spring, a retro-inspired clothing line, produced in a limited series. Pop songs which caught the attention of a public far from its usual target, but which were not enough to revitalize the image of Naf Naf. In the coming months, the company will have to look for ways to speak to increasingly digital consumers to continue to seduce them and perhaps secure a future.