The fate of the 579 Naf Naf employees is fixed. The Bobigny commercial court decided, Tuesday June 18, to award the clothing brand placed in receivership in September 2023 to the Turkish company Migiboy Tekstil.
This manufacturer of yarns and fabrics employing 700 employees in Turkey intends to dedicate a factory (under construction in the province of Ordu) to the making of the French brand’s collections. Before the judges, he pledged to take over 99 of the 111 Naf Naf stores, including two discount stores, and to keep 505 of his 579 jobs.
Naf Naf therefore maintains a strong link with Turkey, a country whose textile industry is renowned for the manufacture of cotton clothing and jeans. Its former shareholder, SY International, which took over the brand in court in 2020, is also a Turkish manufacturer.
Recovery of assets for 1.5 million euros
Although the latter failed to relaunch the heavily indebted company and requested the placement in receivership of another brand, Sinéquanone, liquidated in April 2023, he will remain a subcontractor of the company. Before the judges, Migiboy assures that his project “is based on a partnership with the company SY International, the brand’s historic supplier”. Since 1986, he has made part of the Naf Naf collections.
With this cover, Migiboy intends to “develop towards retail to no longer have the sole quality of supplier”, it is written in the judgment of the Bobigny commercial court. According to the new arrival, the takeover of Naf Naf’s assets for an amount of 1.5 million euros would be “a first opportunity to embark on this path”.
The industrialist, whose own sales still fell by 23.6% in 2023 to reach 55.9 million euros, does not lack ambition. He plans to relaunch the activity of the women’s fashion brand to reach “growth of 8.5% per year” And “a cumulative turnover of 311.6 million euros” over the next three years, according to the elements transmitted to the judges.
“Success story” of the 1980s and 1990s
Obviously, the challenge is great. Because Naf Naf is nothing more than a shadow of herself. Founded in 1973, in the Sentier district, by two brothers, Gérard and Patrick Pariente, the brand, success story of the 1980s and 1990s, has been struggling since its passage between 2007 and 2018 within the fold of Vivarte, a group which has now been dismantled. For an amount of 52 million euros, the chain was then sold to the Chinese group La Chapelle; its network had 474 points of sale, more than four times the current number.
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