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The retail crisis in Britain crossed the Channel as French women's fashion chain Morgan confirmed it had gone into administration.The company, owned by private equity firm Apax, has 575 stores in 57 countries, including the UK where it went bust earlier this year. It employs 1,000 people, including 750 in France.
Formed in 1968, the chain rose to the top in the 1990s with the help of publicity campaigns featuring Carla Bruni, the Italian singer who is now the wife of French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
French newspaper Le Figaro reported earlier that Morgan had informed the commercial tribunal of Nanterre, a Parisian suburb, on Christmas Eve that it was unable to continue making payments.
This was confirmed by a spokesman who told French news agency AFP that it had gone under for three reasons: the financial crisis, with an expected drop in business of 8 per cent in 2009, problems in the UK and the difficulty of finding a new owner. The company has an estimated €30m (£29.24m) of debt and annual turnover of €140m.
Apax, which has held 40 per cent of the equity for the past decade, put Morgan up for sale earlier this year but litigation involving a Tunisian supplier has made a sale impossible so far.
The company now hopes that administration will enable it to spread repayment of its debt over 10 years — and find a new owner.
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