In France, ready-to-wear brands stick out their tongues. The Naf Naf brand was placed in receivership on Wednesday, indebted in particular due to unpaid rents during the Covid crisis. Positioned in the mid-range, Naf Naf is a French ready-to-wear brand, is a French brand launched in 1973 by two brothers and now owned by the Franco-Turkish group SY employs 660 people in France, owns 135 stores and posted a turnover of 141 million euros in 2022, “growing”, said a spokesperson at the end of August.
But it is heavily in debt, in particular due to unpaid rent since 2020, and was placed in receivership on Wednesday by the Bobigny commercial court, with an observation period of six months. “The rents have generally been paid” but the company is in negotiations with certain landlords to reassess them downwards, “in particular in the shopping centers” where they are “no longer in line with the turnover”, explained the lawyer of the group Virginie Dupé, of the firm Hyest.
35 positions cut last June
Naf Naf’s debts now stand at 60 million euros, according to a source familiar with the matter. The company had already been placed in receivership in May 2020 and taken over by the Franco-Turkish group SY International, which is still its shareholder and which employs 1,500 people directly worldwide.
“We know that there will be store closures, a priori twenty, and a new PSE at headquarters, which will move”, fears Angélique Idali, secretary of the CSE and CGT union representative. The company had already cut 35 jobs in June as part of a PSE. The ready-to-wear sector in France has been shaken for several months by a violent crisis.
Camaïeu, Kookaï, Burton of London, Gap France, André, San Marina, Kaporal, Don’t Call Me Jennyfer, Du Pareil au Même and Sergent Major… These brands well known to French consumers suffered from an explosive cocktail: pandemic, inflation, rising costs of energy, raw materials, rents and wages, or even competition from second-hand and fast fashion.