“The current shareholder is looking for an external shareholder solution and is giving himself several months to do this research and find the best possible solution,” Pimkie’s communication to AFP announced.
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Struggles for more than a decade. The Mulliez family association (AFM) is looking for a buyer for its women’s ready-to-wear brand Pimkie, management and unions told AFP on Monday May 23, confirming information from the specialized media Fashion Network. “The current shareholder is looking for an external shareholder solution and is giving himself several months to do this research and find the best possible solution”Pimkie’s communication to AFP announced.
Pimkie, which has 232 own stores and 81 affiliated stores for 1,500 employees, had achieved nearly 200 million euros in sales in 2020. The brand founded in 1971 had appointed Philippe Favre, manager specializing in the management of companies in difficulty, to the position of general manager.
With this arrival, the employees expected to “a business turnaround with restructuring, certainly store closures”, explained Karine Therage, store manager in Noyelles-Godault (Pas-de-Calais), elected to the CSE and union representative CFE-CGC. But last week, “the announcement was made on the search for a potential shareholder”she continues. “Pimkie is therefore for sale and there would be a specification: they have withdrawn the possibility of a pension fund, they are looking for a shareholder who could give the company a future.”
The union fears that the buyer will follow the path traced by Philippe Favre, providing for store closures. “They should have consulted the CSE and did not”laments for her part Marie-Annick Merceur, CFDT union delegate. “We have been preparing for a PSE (employment safeguard plan) for months and there they leave the choice to the future buyer to see which stores he wants to close.”
Unsa observes on Facebook that “the Mulliez group wishes to separate from the textile brands” and “the investment requested for the turnaround of Pimkie” dissuaded these shareholders from following this path. “Once again, it is the employees who are being harmed”finally regrets the CGT Pimkie.