After Camaïeu, Naf Naf or La Halle, it is the turn of the men’s ready-to-wear brand Celio to plan the “Closure of 102 branch stores and the elimination of 383 jobs” as part of a job protection plan (PSE) announced this Wednesday, October 28 to employee representatives.
“We do not know what sauce we are going to be eaten”: the concern of ready-to-wear employees faced with the wave of layoffs
“344 in-store jobs and 39 in support functions” are concerned, according to a press release from the management specifying that the consultation of the CSE “Will run until the first quarter of 2021” and that the stores will remain open “For the Christmas period, with the exception of a few whose leases expire”.
In this text, the management “Undertakes to make every effort to offer solutions favoring the repositioning of the employees concerned, thanks to internal reclassification measures and personalized support for the construction of external professional projects”.
A “backup exit plan”
The brand, founded in 1978, currently has 1,500 stores in 46 countries, including 478 stores in France, and 4,200 employees worldwide, including 2,416 in France at 1er October 2020. “Part of this network is a source of significant financial losses due to the drop in profitability of certain stores”, explains Celio.
Faced with the crisis, is the State naive or strategist?
“In the coming months, we will accelerate our transformation”, says Gaëlle de la Fosse, president of the group. Management is in fact preparing a “Backup output” to be presented in the first quarter of 2021.
Celio is not the only ready-to-wear brand to bear the brunt of the Covid-19 crisis, since La Halle, André, Naf Naf or Camaïeu have all lost employees. Recently, the American giant Gap announced that it plans to close all of its stores in Europe by June 2021.
The previous two years had already been marked in France by the demonstrations of “yellow vests” and by social mobilizations against the pension reform, which affected many businesses. In addition, the fashion market is “Structurally in difficulty” and “Lost 17% of its value over the last ten years”, according to Yohann Petiot, general manager of the Alliance du Commerce, which brings together the union of large downtown commerce, the federation of clothing brands and that of shoe brands.
This Alliance warned, in a press release Tuesday evening, that a “Would have dramatic consequences for trade as the holiday season approaches”, period “Essential” who “Represents more than 20% of the annual turnover of fashion brands”, notes Yohann Petiot.
