Ready-to-wear brand Esprit placed in receivership in France after filing for bankruptcy of its activities in Europe

La chaîne de vêtements a été fondée en 1968 à San Francisco par un couple américain hippie, Douglas et Susie Tompkins, également à l’origine de la marque The North Face. MAXPPP – JAMES ARTHUR GEKIERE – Illustration

Ready-to-wear brand Esprit has been placed in receivership in France, according to a court decision seen by AFP, two months after the group announced it had filed for bankruptcy for its European operations.

Esprit de Corp France, based in Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine) was placed in receivership on July 18 by the Nanterre commercial court, according to the decision, confirming information from the specialist website Fashion Network.

"At the closing date of the last financial year", the company employed 145 employees in France and its annual turnover amounted to to almost 32 million euros, according to the document. The brand is present in more than a hundred points of sale in France, according to its website.

“The elements presented (by the company's director, editor's note) suggest that the development of a recovery plan for the company is possible”, the commercial court considered, setting an observation period of six months.

The subsidiary Esprit Europe and six other German companies in the group are concerned

The group, based in Germany and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, announced in May that it had filed for bankruptcy for its activities in Europe, counting on a restructuring to overcome its difficulties linked in particular to the increase in its costs and the after-effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The bankruptcy filing concerns the subsidiary Esprit Europe and six other German companies of the group. The subsidiaries in Switzerland and Belgium, where Esprit has stores, had filed for bankruptcy in March and April.

The clothing chain was founded in 1968 in San Francisco by an American hippie couple, Douglas and Susie Tompkins – also behind the brand The North Face –, who sold their first items while crisscrossing California in a Volkswagen minibus. The founders have not been at the helm for a long time. The group has been listed since 1993, with its headquarters in Ratingen near Düsseldorf (western Germany). Esprit says it is present in more than 40 countries with 586 stores.