Canadian clothing retailer Reitmans (Canada) Limited is to permanently shut down its Thyme Maternity and Addition Elle brands under a new restructuring plan which sees 1,400 jobs at risk.
Last month, the company applied for bankruptcy protection and said it had obtained preliminary approval to restructure its operations as the coronavirus impact forced its stores to close.
Reitmans trades out of 576 stores in Canada and online.
The announcement will see the permanent closure of 77 Addition Elle and 54 Thyme Maternity stores over the course of the summer. The objective for the brands in the immediate term is to liquidate their inventory as the company’s stores begin to reopen following the Covid-19 pandemic.
Permanent closure is planned for 18 July for Thyme Maternity and 15 August for Addition Elle. The brand’s respective e-commerce websites are expected to shut down on the same dates.
Reitmans said it would continue its “legacy” in retail fashion with three premium brands: Reitmans, Penningtons, and RW & Co.
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By GlobalDataStephen Reitman, president and CEO of Reitmans (Canada), said: “The strategic decision to close two beloved Canadian fashion brands was not made lightly, but it is necessary to enable our business to move forward as a profitable organisation. All of the efforts we put forth to turn these brands around were derailed by the Covid-19 pandemic and, unfortunately, we can no longer afford the required resources to bring them back to profitability.
“The impact on all of our employees is, by far, the most difficult and emotional part of this whole process.”
As a result of the decision and of the restructuring of all teams within the organisation, the company will be reducing its workforce by about 1,100 employees in its retail stores and approximately 300 employees at its head office in Montreal.
Over the last few weeks, a number of household names across the globe have filed for bankruptcy or fallen into the hands of administrators including JCPenney, Neiman Marcus, J.Crew Group, and Debenhams.
