French ready-to-wear once again affected by the crisis. The San Marina shoe brand was placed in compulsory liquidation on Monday by the Marseille commercial court, leaving some 650 employees in 163 stores on the floor. “No serious takeover project could be supported and the current managers were unable to complete their reserve offer project for lack of an investor”, explains the court, which announced the immediate cessation of activity in the face of ” to a situation that it is no longer possible to rectify and is worsening day by day”, in a decision that AFP was able to consult.
The carnage continues for ready-to-wear
After the liquidation of Camaïeu in September, the placement in receivership of Go Sport in January, followed by those of Gap France and Kookaï in February, the carnage continues for a ready-to-wear sector that has been damaged for several years. . The hope of a rescue of San Marina, a brand created in 1981 in Marseille and specializing in women’s shoes and leather goods, had moved away at the beginning of February, when its two shareholders had abandoned their takeover offer, for lack of sufficient funding. .
Stéphane Collaert, who had bought the brand from Vivarte at the start of 2020, and Laurent Portella had planned to take over a little less than a third of the 163 San Marina stores in France, by selling their majority share to attract other investors, in particular suppliers of the sign, but without succeeding.
A dozen takeover offers
Of the ten takeover offers then filed with the Marseille commercial court, only three had been supported on February 10, none of which met “the conditions of the law to be retained in receivership”, explained to the AFP Bernard Bouquet, San Marina’s lawyer. These offers did not save the jobs of some 650 employees of the group, according to Helmi Farhat, secretary of the Works Social Committee (CSE) and CGT representative of the employees. The judgment sets the deadline for the liquidator to file the list of declared claims at 12 months.