Women’s ready-to-wear brand Pimkie is about to be sold to a consortium made up of Lee Cooper France, Kindy and Ibisler Tekstil, an acquisition that would mean the loss of some 500 jobs, we learned on Thursday from union sources and close to the file. .
“The sale of Pimkie” by the Association of Mulliez Families (AFM) “will soon be approved,” a source familiar with the matter said, confirming information from Challenge. A conciliation hearing is scheduled for February 8 before the Lille-Métropole Commercial Court, in relation to “the conditions of the sale” and the “commitments” assumed by the seller and the buyer, said this source.
The brand, which employs 1,500 people and has 232 of its own stores and 81 subsidiaries, announced in October that it had started exclusive negotiations to be acquired with the consortium made up of the Lee Cooper France, Kindy and Ibisler Tekstil groups. According to Marie-Annick Merceur, CFDT union representative, shoppers “will be between the walls around February 16 and 17” and “in April, we should be informed of a social plan with a hundred stores to close.” “The CSE expert estimates the number of jobs cut at 450 to 500” as part of this PSE (labor safeguard plan), she says. These elements were presented at a CSE meeting in December.
Closure of a hundred stores
According to Marie-Annick Merceur, the transfer operation provides for the AFM to create a financial structure “that will make it possible to finance this social plan, the investments and future bank maturities.” Contacted by AFP, the managers of Pimkie and Kindy declined to comment. Another union source also anticipates a PSE that would affect some 500 employees, mainly employed in 100 stores that will be phased out between 2023 and 2025. According to her, the unions have already obtained guarantees on this future PSE, particularly on suprabonuses. -legal.
The AFM “will put 250 million euros, in a staggered way,” says this source. “Mulliez will pay off his debts and support his financial recovery, but once they’re gone, we’re not sure it will last long,” he worries. The buyers “have not presented any project that would make Pimkie better tomorrow. We continue to lose money and as much as the Mulliez family had strong backs (…) they do not,” Marie-Annick Merceur also laments.
Source: BFM TV
