Claire’s looking for buyer for its struggling French branch

Claire’s is looking for a new owner for its French branch, which was placed under receivership by a court in Paris. The American accessories chain wants to withdraw from the French market.

Profitable despite revenue decline

Candidates have until 19 September to submit a bid, but the chance that someone will take over the entire division (with 239 stores) is not great. In recent acquisitions in France, often only a minority of the stores were saved (as in the acquisition of Jennyfer last month).

Last week, the French Claire’s branch was placed under guardianship, aiming to provide the circumstances for a quick restart. Financial problems are not new to the chain: the British branch may also await a judicial protection procedure, while the entire company already went bankrupt back in 2018. Since then, the chain has been owned by its former creditors, who had previously been looking for a buyer for the whole company – without much success.

Although Claire’s France saw a 7 % decline in revenue to 132 million euros in the previous financial year, the company remains optimistic about the future, aiming for a revenue of 166 million euros this year. The net profit also remains positive, having increased from 800,000 to 1.3 million euros. For the current year, the French Claire’s branch does expect a significant drop in profit to 300,000 euros, but the net result would still be positive, Fashionnetwork reports.