MILAN – Alexander McQueen is moving forward with the announced layoffs.
Italian unions Filctem Cgil, Femca Cisl, and Uiltec Uil said Friday that, since 54 out of 181 employees are to be let go, they “express strong preoccupation and strong opposition in regards to a decision that risks having an extremely relevant social impact.”
Responding to a request for comment, McQueen confirmed “the opening of collective redundancy procedures, affecting the brand’s activities in Italy. This difficult decision is consistent with the strategic review of our global operations announced in November and part of the group-wide effort to restore the business to sustainable profitability over the next three years, while laying the foundations for its long-term future.”
The company, controlled by the French Kering group, said it “will continue to engage with our employees and their representatives during this critical period and remain committed to supporting them throughout the process and the transition.”
As reported in January, the unions and the representatives of McQueen, in Scandicci, Novara and Parabiago, “express strong concerns” about the future of production at the plants in those towns, the former in Tuscany and the latter two in northern Italy, therefore leading to a potential loss of jobs.
On Friday, the unions highlighted “the very significant reduction” in the number of employees, which will lead to “hefty consequences not only for those directly involved and their families, but also for the organization of the work, for the overall stability of the company and for the production and supply pipeline it is connected to.”
They urged McQueen to table “a serious, transparent and in-depth” conversation with the unions “aimed at verifying all the possible solutions that will allow to reduce or avoid the layoffs that have been announced.”
Potential alternatives, said the unions, are the activation of social safety nets and recovering the redundancies through mobility programs within the group, promoting outplacement services.
In February, Kering chief executive officer Luca de Meo said that, to restructure McQueen, he had no choice but to cut deep and fast, as the brand has incurred heavy losses by opening 135 stores worldwide and allowing itself to become excessively reliant on sneaker sales, which at one point represented 80 percent of its revenues.
De Meo said more than half of those stores could be shuttered “without mercy,” with some locations transferred to other brands within the group. “What do you want me to do? I don’t run a charity,” he said. “We have to make [tough] decisions, but we obviously respect the history and the potential of the brand.”
However, he said an outright sale was unlikely, especially as it would be difficult to find a buyer willing to pay an attractive price for the brand. Instead, he plans to fine-tune McQueen’s offering as part of a broader effort to develop brand platforms designed to clarify the scope of each house.
The brand has struggled for years, even during the long tenure of its star designer Sarah Burton, who is now at the creative helm of Givenchy and was succeeded by Seán McGirr.
Under the Kering umbrella, revenue at McQueen, Balenciaga, Boucheron and Qeelin is logged under the “other houses” group, which in the fourth quarter last year reported a 3 percent increase.
In October, McQueen launched a strategic review that also could lead to the loss of 55 jobs, or 20 percent of the head office staff, in London. At the time, McQueen confirmed it had entered into a consultation process, a precursor to layoffs in the U.K., with the members of staff affected.
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