Ready-to-wear: the IKKS brand plans to reduce staff and number of stores

Another one. According to a press release, ready-to-wear group IKKS announced this Monday that it is considering staff reductions and store closures to face the “challenging economic reality.”

This Job Protection Plan (PSE), which was presented to the CSE on Monday, could affect 202 employees in France (out of 1,328) and includes the closure of 77 shops and corners (out of 604).

With this, IKKS joins the list of ready-to-wear brands experiencing economic difficulties in the wake of the pandemic. In September 2022, the courts declared the Camaieu brand liquidated, resulting in store closures and employee layoffs. The Kookai brand, which went into administration in February 2023, announced the closure of 20 stores a few months later.

San Marina, Caporal, Don’t call me Jennifer…

Other textile and footwear brands such as San Marina, Kaporal, Don’t Call Me Jennyfer, Naf Naf, André, Minelli and Gap France have also reported difficulties in recent months. Some are downsizing, like IKKS, others have been put into administration, and others have been liquidated.

Fashionable in the 1990s, these brands began to decline during the financial crisis of 2008. The Covid crisis has also hit brands already weakened by the rise of fast fashion giants such as Zara or H&M and online sales.

“The combination of various external factors, such as the global health crisis due to Covid-19, the consequences of the war in Ukraine, where the group is firmly established, as well as persistent inflation, have had a strong impact on the entire sector,” IKKS justified in its press release.

The project “aims to rationalize the distribution network and optimize the company’s performance in an unstable economic context,” explained IKKS, which also aims to “maximize reclassification.”

Founded in 1987, the IKKS group includes brands such as I.Code, One Step and IKKS, and offers clothing for women, men and children. According to a press release, the group is present in France and abroad, with 700 sales points and 1,700 employees worldwide.