Saskatoon employee frustrated after Cleo and Ricki’s announces closures

More stores closures are in Saskatchewan’s future as the parent company for Cleo fashions Inc. and Ricki’s Fashions Inc. will be closing them down.

Comark Holdings Inc., which also owns Bootlegger Clothing Inc., made a court application for a reprieve from creditors and the space to consider the future of its businesses.

Kathy Edstrom works around 10 to 15 hours a week at one of Saskatoon’s Cleo stores. She said she feels bad for the full-time employees.

“I was at Ricki’s and I was talking to an associate there and she’s devastated. She’s a full-timer and she’s going to have nothing,” said Edstrom.

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Edstrom added her manager who moved to Saskatoon from overseas not long ago is now going to be out of a job and has nowhere to go.

“She came over from another store and for a better job – she was going to be a manager on the bench and now she’s out,” Edstrom explained.

“The part-timers and the full-timers are getting paid minimum wage, right? Who can save money with getting paid minimum wage for a situation like this? Not many.”

Court documents show the company operates 75 Ricki’s stores, 54 Cleo stores, 20 joint locations and about 19 sites the brands split with Bootlegger, which has 53 stand-alone shops.

The company, which court filings say has 2,056 employees in Canada, said it would seek a future court order to liquidate some of the Bootlegger stores.

Edstrom knew something was up when they had 70 per cent off sales happening at her Cleo location right before Christmas.

In court filings, Comark describes how it ran into trouble as it tried to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, a November 2021 ransomware attack, more competition from ultra-low-cost fashion retailers like Shein and Temu, and supply chain and vendor issues.

Edstrom said employees were not given much of a heads up, but said she will keep working until they close, which she estimates to be January 17.

“The 17th is when they’re going to stop taking any gift cards and refunds, I believe,” she said.

“They should have given the staff a heads up and said we’re not doing well, please be cautious over the holiday season,” she added. “I’m a human being and I love other human beings and I don’t like the way that this staff was treated.”

In an affidavit, Chief Executive Shamsh Kassam estimated Comark’s brands owed $61 million to a mix of vendors, landlords and other partners who the company would be unable to pay by the time Christmas arrived.

— With files from Shane Clausing and The Canadian Press