The Naf Naf sign is again placed in receivership. The Bobigny Commercial Court validated the opening of this procedure, at the request of its leaders, on Wednesday, September 6.
This is the second time in three years that the women’s ready-to-wear chain has been subject to collective proceedings. In June 2020, Naf Naf was taken over by one of its suppliers, SY International, at the bar of the court, following the financial difficulties of its shareholder, the Chinese group La Chapelle. Its offer was preferred to that of the Breton group Beaumanoir, at the head of 2,500 stores. Selçuk Yilmaz, founder of SY, took over the brand founded in 1973 by the Pariente brothers, in Paris, in the Sentier district, and sold at a high price to the Vivarte group in 2007. The Franco-Turkish entrepreneur was committed to maintaining 944 jobs. The chain now employs 660 people and achieved 141 million euros in turnover in 2022, thanks to a network of 125 stores.
This time, the company explains its cessation of payments by “unpredictable and unstoppable external elements”of which “the inflationary shock and the surge in energy, raw material and transport prices” or the “foreign competition whose questionable means of production offer it unfair competitiveness” alluding, without quoting it in its press release, to the firepower of Shein, a Chinese low-cost fashion site. The brand is struggling in particular to honor its rents due during the closing periods imposed in 2020 and 2021 to fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. The amount of its liabilities reaches approximately 60 million euros, of which almost a third comes precisely from unpaid rents.
Twenty shops threatened
Internally, the representatives of the 660 employees highlight other disorders since the takeover of the sign by SY, a manufacturer which, in 2019, had also obtained the Sinéquanone sign at the court bar; its thirteen stores were liquidated in April. Luc Mory, who was in charge of the general management of Naf Naf and had supported SY’s offer in 2020, left his post in the spring. The head office is also “disorganized” since a plan to safeguard employment, completed in June, covering around thirty positions, points out an elected union representative. Store managers are concerned about the departure of all of the brand’s regional directors.
However, according to his spokespersons, Mr. Yilmaz and his lawyers have ” primary objective (…) to develop a continuation plan” company, which benefits from a six-month observation period. The stakes are high: the Naf Naf stores are one of the outlets for the manufacturer, which employs 1,500 people, notably in a factory in Tunisia. “How will he be able to restart the Naf Naf machine? », asks an employee. According to AFP, around twenty store closures could be carried out. The CFDT, the majority trade union organization in the company, calls for “everyone’s responsibility to avoid social damage” while “In some territories, the possibilities of finding a quality job may be rare”. The concern of employees is all the stronger since the clothing crisis has already claimed many victims.
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