The start of 2024 promises to be grim in the clothing sector. On January 10, the day after the start of the winter sales, Pimkie staff representatives met with the brand’s management for an update of the current savings plan. According to the information site The Informedthe agenda will be devoted to a new employment protection plan (PSE) relating to around fifty store closures, in addition to the sixty announced in spring 2023. Without denying or confirming this figure, the management of Pimkie said, in a text sent to World, “consider additional store closures from 2024”.
The clothing chain founded in 1971 has been experiencing difficulties for almost twenty years. Weary, at the end of October 2022, after months of negotiations, its historic shareholder, the Mulliez Family Association (AFM), which owns Auchan, Decathlon and Leroy Merlin, announced its sale to Pimkinvest, a consortium made up of the Lee Cooper jeans, from Salih Halassi, buyer of Mariner briefs and Kindy socks, and from the Turkish company Ibisler Tekstil, one of the brand’s suppliers.
During the sale, at the beginning of 2023, the new shareholders obtained from the AFM the necessary liquidity to supplement a social plan induced by the closure of 100 stores. Scalded by the elimination of 200 positions in 2010 and around 300 in 2018, elected staff members then feared the disappearance of 500 of the 1,400 positions at the company in Villeneuve-d’Ascq (North).
Finally, a month after this signing, “an economic plan based on resizing” of the store base had reduced the closures to 64 addresses. The plan is to be carried out in stages between now and 2027, resulting in the elimination of 257 positions. This PSE was validated in July.
The shoe sector is also struggling
Since then, the brand has changed its general manager. Replacing Sandrine Lilienfeld, former boss of Camaïeu, who only remained in office for six months, Elodie Chelle, former manager of Don’t Call Me Jennyfer, took office in the fall, under the presidency of Mr. Halassi. “The current economic context, the drop in attendance (…) and inflation have a considerable impact [les] sales and [les] economic results »today puts forward the sign to explain that it is ” constraint “ to this PES. In the process, Pimkie would return to the initial restructuring plan. Currently, the company operates 196 stores in city centers and shopping malls.
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