Claire's France: two companies propose takeover of brand and 460 employees

Two companies proposed to the Paris Commercial Court on Thursday to take over the Claire's brand in France. The company was placed in receivership at the end of July.

The proposal includes taking on 460 of the 829 employees of the low-cost jewellery chain in France, lawyers for the staff representatives told AFP.

The companies in question are costume jewellery retailer June, which has already obtained authorisation to operate the Claire's brand and wishes to take on 426 employees, and Spanish phone case retailer La Casa de las Carcasas, which intends to take on 34 employees.

June would also take over 139 of Claire's approximately 240 existing stores. La Casa de las Carcasas would take over three stores to sell its phone accessories.

“These complementary offers,” which are very likely to be approved by the court on November 14, “are solid and sustainable and could save almost 50 percent of the jobs,” assured Eve Ouanson.

A redundancy plan has already been initiated for the employees not affected by the takeover. This is expected to result in redundancy for the majority of them.

“The trade unions have responsibly signed the agreement on this redundancy plan to try to limit the damage in terms of jobs,” emphasised Khaled Meziani.

The court opened receivership proceedings for Claire's France at the end of July. The brand is best known for its small jewellery, piercings and other accessories aimed at teenagers.

Management justified this by the continuous decline in in-store sales over several years. This was accelerated by US customs duties on Chinese products, which Claire's uses extensively.

However, according to the latest published accounts, Claire's France generated a net profit of 1.3 million euros between the end of 2023 and the end of 2024, and 0.8 million in the previous financial year.

A third takeover bid was briefly presented to the judicial administrator before it was ultimately rejected.

The Claire's chain is not only in difficulty in France. Its parent company in the US declared bankruptcy in August before being taken over by an investment fund.

The Spanish subsidiary of Claire's also declared a suspension of payments in September.

In early September, staff representatives reported facts to the court that they describe as “serious irregularities in the management of the company.” They accused the US parent company of having “emptied the coffers” via “financial flows” between the group's numerous subsidiaries.

This article was translated to English using an AI tool.

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