Announcements of judicial liquidations continue. In 2023 alone, San Marina, Camaïeu, Orcanta and Minelli have drawn the curtain… A French ready-to-wear brand adds its name to this long list of missing ones.
The law of series. Since 2023, French brands have been in arrears and liquidations (San Marina, Camaïeu, Modetrotter, Orcanta, Minelli, etc.) followed legal receiverships (Kookaï, Jennyfer, Naf Naf, André, Kaporal, etc.). The Covid-19 pandemic, then inflation, have lastingly changed consumption habits. So much so that even the sales no longer meet with the expected success. The CCI (Chamber of Commerce and Industry) of Paris surveyed Parisian traders at the end of the four weeks of biannual promotion which ended on February 6, 2024. Results: 51% of professionals say they are dissatisfied with the results of the sales. Only 57% of them saw their turnover increase, at best by 10%, over the period. “The main problem is the drop in attendance, the days are very calm, we have days with 3-4 people, even on Saturdays, even the first Saturday of the sales, we have not had more traffic however”, remarks a trader from Saint-Germain-des-Prés interviewed as part of the CCI study. This is due, in particular, to purchases on the Internet. In 2023, the share of online sales of fashion products should be 16.5% according to figures from Fevad (Online Sales Federation), i.e. 1.8 points more than before the health crisis. A digital shift that not all struggling brands have been able to negotiate. The explosion of ultra-fast fashion sites such as Shein, Temu, Fashion Nova, Alibaba and others is also to blame. Low-cost collections renewed daily, which addict GenZ – a study by ThredUp in partnership with GlobalData reports that a third of 15-25 year olds say they are addicted to this fast fashion. Finally, many brands have accumulated debts during the successive confinements of 2020 and 2021, which they are still struggling to pay off three years later.
An additional victim
This explosive cocktail did not spare Burton of London. The brand born at the beginning of the 20th centuryth century in Great Britain was placed in compulsory liquidation by the Paris commercial court on Tuesday February 13, 2024. A decision which caused the dismissal of 200 employees and the closure of 47 stores. The brand, owned by Thierry Le Guénic, had been in receivership since June 12, 2023. The entrepreneur bought it at the end of 2020 for a symbolic 1 euro from the Omnium group. But like Habitat and Orcanta, two other brands acquired by the businessman, these acquisitions resulted in permanent closures. Remains in the hands of businessman CosmoParis, Paule Ka and Maison Lejaby. Founded in 1884, the lingerie brand is also in difficulty, since it in turn was placed in receivership on January 2, 2024.