Between 2019 and 2022, Jennyfer closed 180 stores. Other shops are preparing to know the same fate in the coming months. Discover which ones.
Which French teenager can say without blinking that she has never wore jennyfer -like clothes? Since its birth in 1985, the tricolor brand can boast of touching all generations, of all horizon. The young girls of the capital, Parisian suburbs or the provincials: the stylistic hegemony of the label remained until then not threatened … But that was without counting on the ready-to-wear crisis that has been raging for a few years.
In 2023, she ended up being one of the 32 textiles and shoe brands subject to legal proceedings (LSA CONSO). Among them, we find in particular the Kaporal label, which definitively lowered the curtain a few days earlier, despite a continuation plan accumulating stimulus strategy and restructuring measures to get it out of business. We are therefore entitled to wonder if the same fate is waiting for Jennyfer soon. As a reminder, between 2019 and 2022, she was already losing ground with 180 store closings (June 2023, Le Figaro). Of the remaining 220 shops on French territory (August 2024, Le Figaro), two franchisees will close their doors at the start of the year (Actu.fr):
-Jennyfer de Neufchâtel-en-Bray (76)
– Jennyfer d’Abbeville (80)
To get out of the difficulty, the brand tried everything: new image redesigned, name change in 2019 (from “Jennyfer” has “Do’t call me jennyfer”), diversification of activities (sale of New Romance books and Korean beauty products in store), consolidation of its already existing target while expanding it (from 10-14 year olds to 15-19 year olds, then 20-24 years) … with more or less success.
The return to the initial name, operated last year, raises questions. Indeed, each major marketing turn whispers something on financial health or the reputation of the claw in question. If Jennyfer needed to return to his fundamentals, it may be because the previous strategy has not proven to be conclusive.
Already nine months since the Commercial Court of Bobigny spoke in favor of the continuation plan in order to release the claw from the receivership. 2025 should help us see more clearly on the fate of Jennyfer.
If these plans are usually spread over ten years, the companies concerned can close in the meantime if the financial results are hardly satisfactory (the proof with Kaporal). For the time being, it is therefore 218 French stores and 1,100 employees who remain threatened.
