Esprit Files Chapter 7 Bankruptcy for US Subsidiaries

Cratering global fashion retailer Esprit filed to put its U.S. subsidiaries into Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

It moved on Oct. 25 to liquidate its wholly owned subsidiaries Esprit U.S. Distributions and Esprit U.S. Retail, which had combined liabilities of $40.5 million as of June 30, Fashion Dive reported.

Real estate holdings to be sold include a 900,000-square-foot warehouse at 215 Cole Street in Jersey City.

Just a year and a half ago, Esprit, preparing to return to the U.S. after an 11-year absence, leased 38,000 square feet at 160 Varick Street from a joint venture between Hines, Trinity Church Wall Street and Norges Bank Investment Management.

The 11th and 12th floors were to headquarter the fashion brand’s design, branding, creative and marketing departments. Employees were expected to move in last year as part of Esprit’s relaunch in the North American market after closing all its retail stores here a decade earlier to stem losses.

Esprit’s popularity in the U.S. peaked in the 1980s and 1990s, according to Fashion Dive. Its comeback attempt included pop-up stores in New York and Los Angeles.

Earlier this year the company, founded in 1968 by Douglas Tompkins, who also started North Face, filed for insolvency for 11 subsidiaries around the world including in Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Hong Kong.

The brand’s board cited “poor business and financial conditions” and “unsatisfactory operational results of the U.S. subsidiaries” for its decision to shut them down. It concluded that their high operating costs and disappointing revenue would not be enough to pay its debt obligations.

The filings did not list Esprit’s creditors.