Naf Naf granted protection from creditors

French fashion brand Naf Naf has officially been placed in receivership, giving it six months to work out a recovery plan. Proposed cuts include closing twenty stores and moving out of its headquarters.

“Not Camaïeu”

Naf Naf applied for protection from creditors last week, and this was approved today, giving the management six months to draft a recovery plan. The chain’s owner, the French-Turkish SY Group, spoke of “unprecedented economic difficulties”.

Nevertheless, the management remains positive: “We will do everything possible to get Naf Naf back on its feet in the coming year”, SY CEO Selçuk Yilmaz told AFP. He believes his chain does not belong in the list with “Camaïeu and all the other companies that have failed to recover from the crisis in the retail sector”.

Head office move

Priorities now are securing jobs and paying off creditors, but the unions take that with a grain of salt. The company has so far failed to pay the wages for August, although employees have since been given an advance for September’s wages. August wages should be paid in a few days as part of the receivership, though.

The recovery plan could also lead to twenty store closures and moving into headquarters at a different location, according to trade union CFDT. Naf Naf currently has 135 shops – seven of them in Belgium – and posted a turnover of 141 million euros in 2022. Despite a shrinking market, sales were growing, according to owner SY.