"It's a great disappointment": Camaïeu is placed in compulsory liquidation

The big last minute maneuvers to save the sign will not have been enough.

This Wednesday, the Commercial Court of Lille placed Camaïeu in compulsory liquidation, following a hearing on the continuation plan presented by its shareholder, HPB.

The northern ready-to-wear giant employs 2,600 people.

"It's a great disappointment" reacted Roland Lescure, Minister Delegate in charge of Industry.

“The court converts the recovery into judicial liquidation,” said its president, arousing the tears of the employees who came to listen to the deliberations.

The shareholder of the brand, joined by the Region, had tried until the last moment to avoid this outcome by claiming state aid.

The Region and the European Metropolis of Lille were "ready to put money on the table" to save Camaïeu "if the State makes a move", indicated a little earlier the cabinet of the boss LR des Hauts-de-France , Xavier Bertrand.

"No formal commitment has been made" on the part of Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, with whom he had spoken in the morning.

The Covid, the fatal blow to the brand

On Monday, HPB had requested an advance of 48 million euros from the State, but Bercy had judged that this request was not "realistic", the State not being able "in no case to replace the shareholders".

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 is 70 million euros out of a total of 240 million debts.

Read alsoCovid and traders: “I owe 10,000 euros in rent”

The San Marina shoe brand is still in receivership.

The positioning of these brands in an extremely competitive mid-range niche also explains their setbacks.

By taking over 511 of the brand's 634 stores in France and around 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.