It is a well-known fact that fashion stores are suffering from Corona and competing online shops like no other retail sector. Now the fast fashion chain Orsay has to take action. In the next few weeks, 79 of the 197 branches in Germany are to be closed. In Berlin, the branches on Schlossstrasse in Steglitz and in Moabiter Schultheiss-Quartier on Turmstrasse are affected. In April the shops there will close and the Orsay logos will disappear.
According to the company management, the affected employees have been informed, although the decision is unlikely to have surprised anyone. Although Orsay says it was already generating around a fifth of its sales online before Corona, this could not compensate for the slump in the shop. First, a state loan of 33 million euros was necessary, then the company, founded in 1975 in the Black Forest, saved itself in protective shield proceedings at the end of November. Since then the renovation has been going on.
At least 200 jobs will be lost
Most recently, negotiations with landlords about adjusting the charging rents were the focus. There have been successes, according to an Orsay spokesman, but also failures. Where sufficient rent reductions could not be achieved, the decision had to be made to close the branch, “because even after the corona-related restrictions have ended, they offer no prospect of being able to be operated economically again”. And the jobs?
“We are very interested in ensuring that as many employees as possible remain part of Orsay,” says Orsay boss Sascha Bopp. And in fact, the company had not filled vacancies in the stores in the past few months and kept them open for internal appointments. However: If all internal job offers were accepted, around 200 jobs would still be lost as a result of the restructuring measures.
Orsay is represented as a chain store for women’s fashion in a total of 34 countries and operates more than 700 shops there. About every third of the more than 3500 employees work in Germany. The fashion chain is owned by the French Mulliez family, which also owns the fashion chain Pimkie and the sports equipment and clothing retailer Decathlon. The Pimkie chain ended insolvency proceedings last spring and reduced the number of its branches in Germany from 75 to 40 last year.