Europe 1 with AFP 5:36 p.m., April 4, 2024

A call for tenders to take over or acquire a stake in the women's ready-to-wear brand Naf Naf, in receivership since last September, will be launched on Friday, management told AFP on Thursday.

The women's ready-to-wear company Naf Naf could be sold to a buyer or find an investor by May 13, the date on which this call for tenders closes, according to the timetable revealed by the CFDT at AFP.

“Although the efforts of all Naf Naf employees are there, (...) it must be admitted that the figures are struggling to rise, but we must move forward,” declared Selçuk Yilmaz, boss of Naf Naf, in a message Thursday to employees and transmitted to AFP.

“Several options are being considered”

“Starting tomorrow and in agreement with our administrators, we will launch a public call for tenders” in order to “find investors to provide us with additional financial support,” management explained Thursday in this missive.

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“The sale of a business cannot be ruled out, but it is not the path that we favor,” she continued to reassure. This project was presented to the social and economic committee (CSE) Thursday morning, management said.

“Several options are being considered” including also “a recovery plan established by the current shareholder”, specified the CFDT in a press release sent to AFP.

A company heavily in debt

"To date, employee representatives are therefore uncertain about the future of the company", an uncertainty which adds "to an already very heavy social climate", denounces the majority union at Naf Naf.

Heavily in debt due in particular to unpaid rent during Covid, the company was placed in receivership in September 2023. Naf Naf today employs 676 employees in France and has 111 branch stores and 59 affiliated stores, according to management. 'AFP.

Launched in 1973 by two brothers, Gérard and Patrick Pariente, Naf Naf had already been placed in receivership in May 2020. The company was then taken over by the Franco-Turkish group SY International, which employs more than 1,000 people around the world. , and had already acquired the Sinéquanone brand in 2019.