Women’s ready-to-wear brand Naf Naf, which has been in receivership since last September, was taken over on Tuesday by a Turkish fabric manufacturing company, thereby saving almost 90% of its employees, according to a court ruling consulted by AFP.

The manufacturer Migiboy Tekstil offered more than €1.5 million to take over Naf Naf, saving 521 jobs (out of nearly 670 employees) and to keep 100 of its own shops. The Bobigny Commercial Court therefore ruled in favour of this comprehensive offer, which was the only one on the table. The Turkish company is owned by the Canpolat family and employs around 750 people.

The current Naf Naf network comprises around 110 branches and some fifty affiliated shops. Since 2020, the brand created by the Pariente brothers in 1973 has belonged to the Franco-Turkish SY international group, which took over the brand during a previous receivership procedure. Prior to that, the brand had been part of the Vivarte group and was sold to the Chinese group La Chappelle in 2018. Migiboy Tekstil is therefore the fourth owner of Naf Naf in less than seven years.

The details of Migiboy Tekstil’s recovery plan have not yet been worked out. In recent years, Migiboy Tekstil has suffered from declining footfall in its shops and the impact of inflation. It was also heavily in debt due to unpaid rent during the pandemic. 

“Given the results of the observation period, the presentation of a repayment plan proved to be compromised,” and the receivers then launched a call for tenders to take over the company in April, according to the court’s decision.

The ready-to-wear sector has been going through a crisis for over a year. It has been fatal for some brands, which have been liquidated, such as Camaïeu in September 2022, when 2,100 employees were made redundant.

Some companies, like Pimkie, have cut staff numbers and closed shops. Others, such as Naf Naf and Kaporal (which recently came out of its observation period), were placed in receivership. In addition to Camaïeu, San Marina and Burton of London have more recently gone into liquidation.

These well-known French city-centre brands have been hit by a number of factors: pandemics, inflation, rising energy and raw material prices, rents and wages, and competition from second-hand and fast fashion.

According to the French Fashion Institute (IFM), sales volumes in the fashion sector are set to fall by 4% in 2023.

(With AFP)