Voluntary redundancy plan for Fast Retailing France approved

Fast Retailing France and its French fashion and lingerie chains, Comptoir des Cotonniers and Princesse tam.tam, are implementing a plan for the reduction of their workforce. The management of the Japanese group’s French subsidiary has confirmed it signed a “full agreement” with union representatives for the deployment of a voluntary reduction plan which was announced to the staff last April, as reported on Fashion Network Premium.

“The agreement was approved unreservedly by the authorities,” said the group, which also owns Uniqlo, adding that “we are now entering a phase of voluntary redundancies which will last several months.”

The time window for voluntary redundancies will apply exclusively to the offices of the group’s two French retail chains, based in rue Saint-Honoré, Paris. They currently employ about 300 people, and approximately 50 jobs are reportedly expected to be cut. The senior management has not yet disclosed details of the plan.

In 2015, Comptoir des Cotonniers and Princesse tam.tam, bought by Fast Retailing respectively in 2005 and 2006, already underwent a reorganisation. Details about the two brands’ sales were not disclosed, though Fast Retailing stated that, in the first half of the 2018 financial year, Princesse tam.tam did not cut its losses, while Comptoir des Cotonniers suffered heavy impairment losses which affected the results of the group’s Global Brands division.

Though the redundancy plan concerns the head offices and not the stores, a rationalisation of the network is very much on the cards. Comptoir des Cotonniers now operates 342 stores, as opposed to 375 in 2015, while Princesse tam.tam has 131 stores, as opposed to 152 three years ago.

Voluntary redundancy plan for Fast Retailing France approved

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