On the verge of sinking, Pimkie will finally be recaptured … but at what cost?

Is French fast fashion slowly dying? This is the question we can ask ourselves in the face of stiff competition, such as H&M and Zara, who charge their returns and want to be more premium in the face of the ultra fast fashion of a Shein with increasingly questionable practices. While Camaïeu ended its bankruptcy with a judicial liquidation, for not being able to renew itself as Jennyfer (who would like to be called DCMJ from now on), it was still Pimkie who was in the hot spot. The Mulliez Family Association (an economic interest group that also runs Decathlon, Boulanger or Auchan) that manages the French brand has just announced that it will sell it to three investors.

3 investors take over the Pimkie brand, which has struggled for years

This is the Lee Cooper jeans brand (70% of the capital); Salih Halassi, former buyer of Kindy socks and Mariner underwear (up to 15%), and the Turkish group Ibisler Tekstil (up to 15%), former supplier of Pimkie. According to The worldthe operation will be finalized in early 2023.

This is good news for the 1,200 people employed by Pimkie and fans of the French brand founded in 1971, as it had been at a loss for years and had been looking for a buyer since May 2022. Even if a restructuring seems inevitable, and that we can therefore expect a social plan (understand: job cuts). Seeing his counterpart Camaïeu go into forced liquidation remains a bad omen. It remains to be seen whether new investors will be able to raise the bar in an increasingly dark and steep fashion landscape.

Front page photo credit: Pimkie eshop screenshot as of October 27, 2022.