admin Last July, after just six months in her post, Sandrine Lilienfeld announced her resignation as managing director of the Pimkie brand. Just over two months later, the company has announced the name of her replacement: Élodie Chelle.
Lilienfeld’s resignation was sudden last July. At the time, she cited “a very different point of view from the shareholders on the company’s recovery, opposing managerial values, irreconcilable worldviews” to justify her departure. After two months of reflection and research, the brand’s new directors finally found a replacement. But this time they are adopting a new strategy to strengthen the management team.
From now on, Salih Halassi, chairman of the Pimkinvest consortium, will hold the position of CEO of Pimkie. Chelle will be at his side, in the position of deputy general manager. Both Edhec graduates, Halassi and Chelle have several years’ experience in the fashion industry. Halassi set up his own textile company in the ‘90s and was then CEO of Mariner Underwear. As well as Edhec, Élodie Chelle also studied at the IFM. She was director of procurement at Undiz and then director of upstream purchasing operations for Don’t Call me Jennifer.
Everything to relaunch Pimkie
The new management team has developed a strategy to relaunch the brand, which has been struggling for a number of years.
To achieve this, they drew up a three-phase plan:
- Reaffirm an accessible fashion positioning to win back the female target group
- Focus on agility and responsiveness, with 40 percent local import by 2025
- An investment in CSR ambitions and more responsible, committed fashion
In just a few years, Pimkie has scaled back its European operations. The fashion company closed its Belgian subsidiary in 2021, its Swiss subsidiary in 2022 and closed 16 shops in Spain in the same year. Today, Pimkie is out to win back its customers through its 426 shops in Europe, 302 of which are in France.
