Ready-to-wear brand Esprit has been placed into liquidation in France, four months after the group announced it had filed for bankruptcy protection for its European activities. “The activity can no longer continue and (…) There is no possibility of presenting a recovery plan to settle the liability”“This is the view of the Nanterre commercial court (Hauts-de-Seine) in its decision of Thursday 9 September, consulted by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Corp France’s Esprit, based in Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine), went into receivership on July 18. “As of the closing date of the last fiscal year”The company employed 145 people in France and had an annual turnover of almost 32 million euros, according to the court’s decision to recover the assets in July.
The brand was then present in more than a hundred points of sale in France, according to its website consulted in July.
Aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic
The group, based in Germany and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, announced in May that it had filed for bankruptcy for its European activities, counting on a restructuring to overcome its difficulties, linked in particular to rising costs and the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The bankruptcy filing affects the Esprit Europe subsidiary and six other German companies in the group. The subsidiaries in Switzerland and Belgium, where Esprit also has stores, filed for bankruptcy in March and April.
This clothing brand was founded in 1968 in San Francisco by an American hippie couple, Douglas and Susie Tompkins –also at the origin of the brand The North Face–, who sold their first garments while travelling around California in a Volkswagen minibus.
The founders have long since left the company. The group has been listed on the stock exchange since 1993. Its headquarters are in Ratingen, near Düsseldorf (in the west of the country). Esprit claims to be present in more than 40 countries with 586 stores.
