Claire’s in France: more than 140 shops taken over and 450 staff retained

On Friday, the Paris Economic Activities Court approved two partial takeover bids for the Claire’s brand in France, which was placed under receivership at the end of July, lawyers for the employee representatives told AFP on Monday.

Some 450 of the 830 employees will be taken on by two companies, the lawyers said: the vast majority by costume jewellery retailer June, which has secured a ten-year licence to operate the Claire’s brand, and around thirty by Spanish phone case retailer La Casa de las Carcasas.

An employment protection plan has already been initiated for employees not included in the takeover, with redundancies looming for the vast majority of them.

June is also set to take over around 140 of Claire’s roughly 240 existing shops, while La Casa de las Carcasas will take three shops in which to sell its phone accessories. Among the shops not taken over, some Claire’s locations have already closed their doors for good.

At the end of July, the court opened receivership proceedings for Claire’s France, a brand best known for its small jewellery, piercings, and other accessories for teenagers.

“The first takeover proposals in early September were very low in terms of jobs saved,” lawyer Eve Ouanson told AFP. “Today’s proposals, which at least save half the jobs, are a lesser evil.”

Management justified the receivership procedure by the steady decline in in-store sales over the past few years, accelerated by US tariffs on Chinese-made products, on which Claire’s relies heavily.

However, according to the latest published accounts, Claire’s France generated a net profit of 1.3 million euros between the end of 2023 and the end of 2024, and 0.8 million in the previous financial year.

Claire’s difficulties are not confined to France: its US parent company filed for bankruptcy in August before being taken over by an investment fund. Claire’s Spanish subsidiary also declared insolvency in September.

In early September, employee representatives reported to the court what they described as “serious irregularities in the management of the company,” accusing the US parent company of having “emptied the coffers” via “financial flows” between the group’s numerous subsidiaries.

“There is still a lack of clarity surrounding these flows,” lawyer Khaled Meziani, who also represents the employee representatives, told AFP.