The northern brand - which employs 2,571 employees in 538 stores - "has requested the opening of receivership proceedings with a continuation plan", indicated the management of Camaïeu in a message to AFP.

The decision was reserved for Monday 3:00 p.m.

"Camaïeu's request is motivated by an acceleration of the company's difficulties and more particularly by the consequences" of a judgment of the Court of Cassation, dated June 30, "refusing traders to lower rents during the Covid period. “, explained the management.

“The main objective (…) is to preserve the sustainability of the company”, she assured.

Upon his arrival in court, Wilhelm Hubner, who chairs HPB (Hermione, People & Brands) - the distribution division of the FIB of Bordeaux businessman Michel Ohayon - told AFP "that part of the rent “had been suspended in June 2021, to initiate negotiations with donors.

"For some, agreements have been reached", but others have gone to litigation, he said, without specifying their number or the amount of unpaid.

- Camaïeu "will have to pay" -

Camaïeu had declared Monday in "cessation of payment" with the commercial court, indicated its president to AFP.

According to Thierry Siwik, CGT delegate of Camaïeu, the management "sent a letter in June 2021 to dozens of lessors concerning, according to our information, between 250 and 300" stores", to announce "a suspension of the payment of rents due to 'a +case of force majeure+".

"Management told the CSE that they were trying to renegotiate rents" following the Covid-19 epidemic and a general drop in traffic to clothing stores, he said.

But "today (...) the management will have to pay", he continued, invoking the judgments of the Court of Cassation.

In three judgments, the highest court has in fact forced traders to pay their unpaid rent during the period when non-essential businesses were closed due to the Covid-19 epidemic, judging that the situation did not was not attributable to the lessors and had not permanently deprived the merchants of using their premises.

"Social Break"

Mr. Siwik estimates at "50 to 60 million euros" the amount of unpaid rent.

"This money, they have not put it aside. The debt is considerable", and if the receivership makes it possible to "freeze" it temporarily, in the long term "there will necessarily be social damage", s' is he worried.

In August 2020, the FIB had taken over 511 of the 634 stores in France and around 2,600 employees out of more than 3,100, as part of a restructuring under the aegis of the Lille commercial court.

She had launched a major transformation plan and "substantial work on the brand and the offer".

The new management had given itself two years to restore the company to equilibrium, with the objective of regaining in 2023 the turnover of 2019 - 570 million euros.

According to management, turnover for 2021 was "552 million including tax".

“The recovery took place in an appalling context,” Mr. Hubner pointed out to AFP a year ago, noting that between the health crisis and a cyber-attack in June 2021, the company had no not experienced "one normal month".

The cyberattack alone cost 40 million euros.

Health crisis, general drop in store traffic, rising inflation: according to the Procos Specialized Trade Federation, the whole of textile distribution is struggling, with sales for the period January to mid-June lower by 13 % at 2019 level.

© 2022 AFP