International fashion house Esprit recently announced it will lay off 1,200 employees—around 20 per cent of its workforce—which comprise 800 store- and 300 non-store staff in Germany and 100 employees in its headquarter Hong Kong. The company, which had closed 56 of its stores in Asia in April, will also close 50 stores in Germany within the next four months.

The company had closed down all its stores in China in early June this year due to falling stocks. In March last year, Esprit had slashed 400 jobs in Germany.

The downsizing is expected to save the Company more than €100 million annually, with creation of exceptional one-off costs of about €55 million. The restructuring plan will be implemented by September, along with the business strategy that was mooted two years ago, according to European fashion media reports.

Esprit quit the Australian and New Zealand markets in 2018, holding on to only the European markets.

Last April, it announced several of its German subsidiaries had applied for Protective Shield Proceedings under German Law. Such proceedings protect companies from creditors’ claims for the next months.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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