La Perla in crisis: discussions ongoing to avoid layoffs

Discussions on permitting the suspension of 126 job cuts, announced in summer, at the luxury lingerie manufacturer La Perla are ongoing, the Italian Ministry of Economic Development announced on Tuesday. 

“The company and the unions will meet again on Friday to continue discussions and agree on the next steps to quickly find a safeguarding solution,” said the ministry in a statement, indicating that the meeting would be at La Perla’s headquarters in Bologna.

A pre-agreement was reached five days ago to suspend the 126 planned job cuts at the business.

The brand’s regional head Stefano Bonaccini tweeted: “La Perla meeting, a pre-agreement signed in the Emilie-Romagne region: withdrawal of the 126 redundancies. It is the first significant result for safeguarding employment and production."

The pre-agreement does, however, present “technical difficulties” concerning its application. The Ministry of Labor has been enlisted to “identify the most apt instruments to support the workers and the company in overcoming this crisis,” said the ministry. 

After a “difficult” year in 2017, La Perla had begun to implement a “restructuring strategy” which included 126 planned job cuts. The announcement led to a strike at the brand’s headquarters that summer. 

In order to increase visibility and improve access to capital, La Perla launched on the Paris stock exchange on the Euronext Growth market at the beginning of September.

The historic Italian lingerie brand was founded by Ada Masotti in 1954. The brand was bought by the Dutch investment company Sapinda Holding from Pacific Global Management in February 2018. PGM had owned La Perla since 2013 when it purchased it for €69 million at auction held as part of bankruptcy proceedings.