Lynne & other (US-)-ESPRIT-Fans: Bad news

Joha

This was in the news 3 hours ago: Due to a 98% loss in earnings in the last year, the ESPRIT clothing chain is closing in North America, Sweden, Denmark & Spain. 130 shops will be closed worldwide. In Germany 24 shops are affected. After losing about 400 Mio Euro (more than 500 Mio USD) last year, they still plan to invest 1,7 Billion Euros over the next 4 years and want to open more new shops than they are closing down now (most of them in China).

More information in English can be found here: http://uk.reuters.com/article/.....CP20110915

While I myself am not an ESPRIT-girl at heart, I know that many certainly are so this is really bad news. Its always so sad when a good shop is closing down....

12 years ago

General

9 replies

Latest reply was from Lynne

crazyone

Veteran

does this mean that their online operations in the US will close, too? That will make me sad. IMO, their quality is higher than many of the mainstream American retailers (Esprit knits are usually much better in quality than Gap knits, say) and with coupons, their prices could often be much lower. I loved the free shipping and returns, too.

12 years ago

annagybe

(website)

Veteran

I miss the fun, exuberant Esprit of the 80's.

12 years ago

Kari

Veteran

That is really too bad. (98%? Wow!) I like Esprit, but in the past year I haven't bought anything there that I kept. I tried out a couple items but the cut or quality always seemed to have some major issue and I brought everything back to the store. In years past the quality seemed to be overall pretty high. I wonder if they have perhaps been cutting corners that led to a decline in quality and consequently in their sales/profits.

12 years ago

DressLover

Veteran

98% loss?! Wow, how did their leadership manage to tank things so quickly?

12 years ago

Isabel

Veteran

That is too bad. I hate to see anything go belly up these days.

12 years ago

Joha

Active Member

bumpin for Lynne

12 years ago

chewyspaghetti

Veteran

Oh I keep hope they keep the online store open to the US market!

12 years ago

Scarlet

Veteran

Huh, and now here I thought they were really stepping up their game in the last couple of years. I had stopped checking them for years and suddenly their designs started catching my eye. I actually bought several things in the last year and just saw some cute fall pieces yesterday.

12 years ago

Lynne

Veteran

Joha, thanks for the info. I have been admiring Espirit of late; I really like a lot of their things and they're affordable, if not premium quality. I'm surprised they could be doing so poorly?

12 years ago

Category