It is the end. The ready-to-wear brand Camaieu was placed in compulsory liquidation by the Lille Commercial Court this Wednesday, September 28, which will lead to the elimination of 2,600 jobs in the northern company, two years after its takeover by its shareholder.
“The court converts the receivership into judicial liquidation”said its president, arousing the tears of the employees who came to listen to the deliberations.
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The shareholder, Hermione People and Brands (HPB), still seemed to believe on Wednesday in a favorable outcome for the brand, placed in receivership on August 1. The plan presented to the court would have limited the damage, with 500 jobs lost.
An advance of 48 million euros requested
He said he was ready in the morning, like the Hauts-de-France region, to inject more money to avoid liquidation, but on condition that the State also provides financial support.
“The shareholder is ready to settle in a financing round with additional financing”had ensured the management of HPB, its president, Wilhelm Hubner, calling “all public actors, State and local authorities” to one “urgent meeting”.
HPB had indicated on Monday that it had requested an advance of 48 million euros from the State, but Bercy had judged that this request was not “realistic”the State cannot “in no way replace the shareholders”.
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The shareholder hoped to gain some time to relaunch his brand, heckled by the health crisis and a costly cyberattack. “The hour is serious, it requires the mobilization of all”Wilhelm Hubner had insisted on Wednesday.
A total of 79.2 million euros was needed, according to HPB, over the next eight months to ensure, among other things, purchases for the autumn-winter season and to prepare the spring collection.
Camaieu weighed down by the Covid crisis
The plan provided for an outlay of 14 million euros from the Financière immobilière bordelaise (FIB) of businessman Michel Ohayon – of which HPB is a subsidiary – to buy the Camaieu headquarters and warehouse in Roubaix. These would then have been “valued” and resold for an estimated amount of between 55 and 60 million.
HPB ” is the only one “ to be able to save the sign, after the withdrawal of various candidates for the takeover, including the American fund Gordon Brothers, had pleaded Monday Wilhelm Hubner, with AFP.
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According to HPB, the sign changed after a judgment of the Court of Cassation imposing at the end of June on traders to pay unpaid rents during the Covid period. Their amount amounts to 70 million euros out of a total of 240 million debts, said Wilhelm Hubner.
By taking over 511 of the brand’s 634 stores in France and some 2,600 employees out of more than 3,100, HPB had given itself two years in 2020 to restore balance to the brand, founded in 1984.
