On the eve of the start of the sales, Wednesday January 10, most Minelli stores are closing the curtain once and for all. On Monday January 8, the Marseille commercial court awarded the shoe brand, which has been in receivership since the end of September 2023, to a consortium of investors led by the SME Mes Demoiselles, a women’s fashion brand.
The latter takes over 39 branches, including nine Parisian boutiques, 8 corners in department stores and 16 affiliated boutiques. That is, 187 of their employees and 26 of the employees of the company’s head office located in Gémenos (Bouches-du-Rhône). From then on, only 30% of jobs at the Minelli brand, which employed 579 people for 220 points of sale, were saved.
The buyers benefit from a “entry into enjoyment from this Tuesday, January 9”, specifies the judgment.
“The least pain in families”
Other stores remain closed. Before the judges, the former manager, Stéphane Collaert, who, with Laurent Portella, at the end of 2023, had given up presenting a continuation plan for the brand, recalled having “made a commitment to employees […] to ensure that there is as little pain in families”, reports the minute of judgment.
Together, the two businessmen took over Minelli and its 260 points of sale, in 2021, from the Vivarte group, two years after also taking over San Marina, alongside Thierry Le Guénic, another businessman.
Before its sale to this trio, Vivarte, the holding company which held the two brands, had bailed out San Marina to the tune of 10 million euros. Following major financial difficulties, particularly due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the managers requested that San Marina be placed in receivership in September 2022. Due to a lack of buyers, the chain of 163 stores was liquidated in February 2023. , leading to the dismissal of nearly 700 employees.