The Claire’s retail chain, which sells inexpensive jewellery and fashion accessories for teenagers, has filed for bankruptcy in Belgium. This was announced to staff on Tuesday at a special works council meeting. Around 100 jobs are at risk.
The closure will affect all 30 Claire’s stores in our country, said Noëlle Pelanis of the liberal trade union ACLVB on Wednesday. "The employees now have to wait and see what the receiver will decide."
"These are people who work day in, day out to keep the brand afloat and who are now in a state of complete uncertainty," Pelanis emphasised. "Those who have kept the brand afloat for years deserve certainty about their future and their wages."
Pending a decision by the receiver, the shops will remain open.
Claire’s, an American chain, has been in difficulty for some time. Last week, the company had already initiated Chapter 11 proceedings in the US to obtain protection from creditors. In France, too, judicial protection was obtained at the end of July.
