Charles Jourdan and Stephane Kelian bankrupt

The 80-year-old French luxury shoe maker Charles Jourdan has filed for bankruptcy, a trade union source told AFP yesterday. “The managing director Christophe Beranger told us during an extraordinary works committee meeting this morning that he would file for bankruptcy this evening at the commercial court,” said member of the CGT trade union, Martine Truchet.

According to Truchet the company has garnered debts of €9 million (£6.13 million). As a result the 532 employees will face the consequences. The bankruptcy covers three companies: its manufacturing unit Charles Jourdan Industrie; the marketing and administration division Charles Jourdan France; and Sodepar, which is responsible for running the boutiques and factory shops.

A restructuring of the company in June 2004, whereby the production of handbags was outsourced to a foreign supplier, failed according to Truchet. Charles Jourdan shoes are still produced at the firm's factory in Romans in south-east France . The past week has been a difficult one for the French shoe industry. Stephane Kelian Production, the manufacturing unit of luxury shoe company Stephane Kelian, went into liquidation after filing for insolvency on 11 August.

The unit, situated in the south-eastern French town of Bourg-de-Peage , employs 143 people. It said that it had accumulated debts worth € 3 million (£2.04 million) and that it does not have the necessary price and production competitiveness to survive. Stephane Kelian went into receivership in 2002. It was then bought out by luxury group Francesco Smalto, which proceeded to divide the company into ten different units.