Claire's France: The search for buyers is underway
According to the published document, Claire's France is home to exactly 239 stores in France, which employs 1,323 people (987 full-time equivalent positions).
Potential takeover candidates have time to prepare their bids: the deadline for submitting bids to the bodies involved in the procedure is September 19.
Claire's financial data is not so catastrophic. While sales have indeed fallen in one year, from 142 to 132 million euros between the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years (-7%), the projection for the current year (2024/25) is 166 million euros. Moreover, the company's net income is still positive, and has even risen from 800,000 to 1.3 million euros in 2023/24. Net income for 2024/25 is projected at 300,000 euros.
The document drawn up by the court-appointed administrators, Thevenot Partners and Solve, also states that the value of Claire's product stock at the end of June was valued at 9.5 million euros.
Who would be strong enough to acquire these assets, including a large number of stores and as many jobs? Recently, the bankruptcies that have led to takeovers have involved only a handful of outlets and a minority share of jobs, as in the Naf Naf (nearly 340 jobs threatened out of 600) and Jennyfer (a third of jobs maintained) cases.
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