Earlier, in mid-May, Esprit announced bankruptcy proceedings towards European companies: its parent company Esprit Europe GmbH and six other German ones. This affected operations in the Netherlands, France, Great Britain, Austria, Scandinavia and Poland – the portal reminds dlahandlu.pl. In turn, at the beginning of the year, the fashion chain went bankrupt in Belgium and Switzerland. Now, the company's European headquarters has announced bankruptcy proceedings. Around 1,300 people are to lose their jobs.
Rising costs have killed off fashion brand Esprit
The problems started earlier. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company closed 100 of its branches and laid off a third of its employees. Esprit explains that the latest decisions are due to the rising costs of doing business. This was due to, among other things, inflationthe war in Ukraine and the growth price energy. The Esprit Group was no longer able to meet its financial obligations and had to restructure. Costs and the number of suppliers were cut. The brand wanted to put more emphasis on e-commerce and wholesale. However, Esprit saw a significant drop in sales. Last year, it was 16 percent. E-commerce sales also fell by 16 percent, wholesale by 20 percent, and sales in its own stores by 14 percent.
Esprit is not the only clothing company that has been affected by problems
These results resulted in the company recording a gross loss of PLN 1.5 billion last year. 300 million euro. This is not the only clothing company that has been hit by serious problems in the last two years. During this period, numerous large brands have filed for bankruptcy, including Camaieu, Burton of London, Gap France, Naf Naf and Kookai. Esprit is a clothing brand that sells women's, men's and children's clothing, as well as footwear, watches and accessories. The company was founded in 1968 by Susie and Doug Tompkins. It has boutiques in 40 countries around the world. According to Esprit, there are still 124 stores in Europe.