Printemps cut 229 jobs and its Rennes store — with no CEO at the helm

On 7 April 2026 Printemps announced the third shrinkage of its modern era: 229 job cuts out of a workforce of roughly 3,300 across 30 stores and four e-commerce sites, with 17 roles modified and 91 new positions created, and the closure of its Rennes store — renovated in 2013, employing 51 people. The announcement came from a group with no chief executive since Jean-Marc Bellaiche left in September 2025, owned since 2013 by Qatari investors through the Luxembourg vehicle Divine Investments SA.

Management's explanation was structural rather than personal: a sustained slowdown in consumer goods sales, falling purchasing power, and competition from ultra-fast fashion and the second-hand market. The group's circular-economy programme, 'Second Printemps', running since 2021, had not blunted the pressure.

The history of the cuts shows the pattern. In 2020 the group closed seven stores — among them Paris Place d'Italie, Le Havre, Strasbourg and Metz — and cut 428 jobs. The Brest store passed through judicial liquidation twice, in March 2025 and March 2026, before closing for good after 67 years. Rennes follows, even though the group's stores still draw around 70 million visitors a year.

The case is a department-store institution shrinking faster than it can adapt: each round smaller than the last, and the rounds keep coming.