2023-07-07 13:27:42
Posted Jul 6, 2023 at 5:28 p.m.Updated Jul 7, 2023 at 3:27 p.m.
The crisis in trade, more specifically in certain segments of household consumption, is becoming ever more abrupt, show the latest statistics from the Banque de France on business failures. Not only the “commerce” sector; auto repair” is the one with the highest number of failures, but it is also one of those with the highest increase in bankruptcies.
In May, the number of failures recorded for trade and automotive repair thus amounted to 10,666 over one year, an increase of almost 50%, for a total all sectors combined of 48,051 over one year. In addition, it grew again last month according to provisional data from the central bank, which reports for June a total of 10,747 defaults, up 46.2%.
Pression
The clothing trade has suffered in particular for months from competition that has become structural from e-commerce, from the inflationary context and from the pressure on household purchasing power, but also from the unsuitable positioning of certain offers – the difficulty in the range – to consumer trends.
If the liquidation, last September, of the Camaïeu group, a long emblematic consumer brand, caused a shock, the trend has not really improved since.
Economic model
“We didn’t have a rebound. We chained Covid crisis and inflation. The context has been very difficult for a year, ”confirms Yohann Petiot, the general manager of the Alliance du commerce, a professional organization for personal equipment bringing together fashion brands (some 26,000 points of sale).
“Our subject for the stores is to find a sustainable economic mode. Inflation leads to a drop in consumption and therefore in our sales, and faced with this we have an increase in our expenses with the increase in rents and wages”, he adds, even though he must now take stock of the recent urban riots .
Create a bank dedicated to “retail”
In a recent interview with “Echos”, Patrick Puy, specialist in business turnarounds who notably piloted a restructuring of the Vivarte group, points to a financing problem: “Generally speaking, if we don’t want to kill the commerce that animates town centres, it must be given access to financing again. Why not create a bank dedicated to ‘retail’, like the FMEA that Nicolas Sarkozy had launched for the automobile? Cities also have a role to play. There is a big difference between those who leave their city center accessible, who limit shopping centers on the outskirts and who are busy, and the others, ”he underlines.
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