After failing in its search to find a buyer for its loss-making business, the Hong Kong-listed clothing retail brand, Esprit Holdings Ltd., is considering closure of all its North American outlets, unless it succeeds in finding a potential buyer who is interested in acquiring any of the outlets.
The firm now intends to concentrate on searching one or more license associates to retain the brand's presence in North American markets.
However, the US and the Canadian subsidiaries have yet not made up their mind on whether to apply under Chapter 11 or similar Canadian law.
Esprit, which sales 79 percent of its products in Europe, is trying hard to recuperate from the annual slump of 98 percent in its revenues, which dipped to HK$ 79 million. This includes costs for closing its outlets across the globe and selling its US and Canada business, the company announced in September last year.
The company lost HK$ 1.6 billion (US$ 206 million) in revenues from the US and Canada through four years till 2011. This was for the third time in a row that annual profits of the firm witnessed a fall.
Last September, Esprit also announced that it would change its strategy and work on its fashion designs, so as to perk up its Europe revenues and increase its sales in China by two-fold, within the next four years.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India