Esprit has sold the rights to its European brand to the British investment group Alteri, reports the industry portal retaildetail.eu. However, this will not protect employees from layoffs or stores from closing.
The industry portal recalls that Esprit had previously announced that it was looking for a buyer for European licensing rights. They were eventually sold to Alteri. Financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed yet.
Esprit has found a buyer
At the same time, in early August, bankruptcy proceedings began concerning the European headquarters of the chain of stores. It was not possible to find a buyer for the entire business.
The British investment group Alteri is buying only the rights to the brand, i.e. the logo and the name Esprit. The transaction does not include other assets, including stores. This means that 1,300 people will lose their jobs.
“This is the end of Esprit's physical presence in Europe, following the earlier closure of stores in other parts of the world,” writes the retaildetail.eu portal. “The future of Esprit stores operating under franchise is still unclear,” we read in the article.
Esprit Problems
In mid-May we described the problems of a clothing company. At that time, the Hong Kong-listed group initiated bankruptcy proceedings in Germanyexpressing hope that the move would enable affected subsidiaries to repair their finances.
The bankruptcy petition, filed before the court in Duesseldorf, concerned the subsidiary Esprit Europe and six other German companies belonging to the group.
In early August, we sent questions to company representatives about the future of Polish employees. However, by the time this article was published, we had not received a response.
retaildetail.eu, tvn24.pl
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