Over 1,000 jobs threatened by OVS liquidation

Italian fashion brand OVS has 140 stores across the country. Keystone

The Sempione Retail company, owner of the OVS fashion stores in Switzerland, has begun bankruptcy proceedings. Some 140 outlets will close their doors, with 1,150 workers affected.

The Italian clothes brand announced in a statement on Wednesday evening that it had reached a financial dead-end. It did not go into specific details, but said that it never managed to gain a foothold in the Swiss market since its 2016 takeover of the Charles Vögele brand.

The announcement comes after several waves of redundancies, including some 300 that were let go from the group’s headquarters.

The bankruptcy notice was handed down by a court in canton Schwyz, where the company is based. During the proceedings, the group said, it would try to liquidate stock in order to reach “the best possible result for all creditors and employees”.

Once this is done, and after a possible sale of other branches abroad, management plans to dissolve the entire company.

Mid-May, the company had already come under criticism by trade union UNIA, who attacked a lack of transparency in the recent successive rounds of lay-offs.

The 1,150 employees affected by the current changes were informed last week of the situation, the company said.