As of Saturday morning, the French clothing store chain Burton of London will close 26 of its 109 points of sale in France, according to concordant sources. The group, bought for a symbolic euro at the end of 2020 by the entrepreneur Thierry Le Guénic, had been placed in the safeguard procedure last October. The shops in Aix-en-Provence, Clermont-Ferrand, La Roche-sur-Yon, Créteil, Montauban and Paris Montparnasse are affected by these closures, said this Friday Anne-Marie Da Costa, CFTC union representative. . “Three stores have already been closed,” she said.
The union, the majority at Burton, specifies that according to the job protection plan – approved a few days ago with the Drieets (Regional Directorate for the Economy, Employment, Labor and Solidarity) – ” 221 employees out of 441 will be laid off”, “62 stores will be closed or sold, and only 47 will remain open”.
The CFTC denounces in a press release “a real social disaster, especially since the job protection plan provides for very weak or even deplorable social measures, while the manager owns several companies with colossal means”. In the Oise, at the Burton store in Compiègne, affected by the closure, there is consternation: “We knew it was going really badly, but we did not know the extent of the PSE which in the end will last twelve months. The trade unions refused to sign the method agreement because it was not known who was concerned. We held out until approval. My heart hurts, bad for my younger colleagues who have young children. One of them is on maternity leave and is going to have a baby…”, says Anne-Marie Da Costa, 61, CFTC union representative. “We will be dismissed with the legal minimum. Point. The measures are deplorable, there is no gesture, ”she laments.
On the side of the customers, in the imperial city, the observation is bitter: “I like going to their place, the clothes are cut. Hearing this news is very sad. Look at the city center of Compiègne, all the signs firmly one after the other: San Marina, Bocage, Comptoir des Cantonniers. It seems that Kookaï is also going to close…”, observes Chantal, a customer. “Now there will only be insurance, opticians and hearing aid shops. To believe that we need good insurance because we are all deaf and partially sighted,” adds Nita, who has come to do some shopping.
To “refocus on people”
For his part, Thierry Le Guenic, majority shareholder, indicated that the company had “been saved in order to create a new project for Burton, which involves the fact that we must make the company profitable”. “The 26 stores that close to the public on Saturday are stores that have not been profitable for ten years, we cannot keep them,” he explained.
The figure of 221 layoffs for 441 employees “it’s the maximum of the maximum, but I think we will be closer to 110 or 120” thanks to the sale of stores, “for me the priority is to sell them with the recovery of staff “, he said.
Regarding the 47 points of sale that the group does not close or does not seek to sell, the women’s collections will disappear to “refocus on men” and the points of sale “will welcome other brands” than Burton of London . In 2020, Thierry Le Guénic also bought the furniture brand Habitat from the Cafom group as well as, with the investor Stéphane Collaert, the shoemaker San Marina, placed in compulsory liquidation on Monday.