Entangled drama: A model poses wearing a dress with lace from Deseilles, which suffered bankruptcy. (Photo : Desseilles Laces/Facebook)
It was a battle of sorts among three companies, two from France and one from China.
The Asian firm emerged triumphant.
The Commercial Court in Boulogne-sur-Mer, a city in Northern France, awarded the acquisition of Desseilles Laces to Hangzhou Yong Sheng Holdings and made the decision on March 31, reported Le Monde.
Who appeared most stylish during the hearings seemed irrelevant.
The court awarded the right to take over Desseilles to the company that would keep the most number of Desseilles’ present workers.
The Chinese firm agreed to retain 60 of the French lacemaker’s 74 employees.
In addition, Yong Sheng, for the next couple of years, will pour in 4 million euros.
From that investment, it will allot 300,000 euros to recover the assets of Desseilles. It will also settle paid leaves worth 8,000 euros and the lacemaker’s debt to local suppliers amounting to 275,000 euros.
Holesco, owner of lacemaker Sophie Hallette and one of the three companies who expressed interest to buy Desseilles, offered to retain “58 percent of the workforce” and to invest “more than 900,000 euros,” according to La Voix du Nord.
The other company, Solstiss-Bracq, presented to preserve the jobs of merely 20 workers.
Yong Sheng also offered to open a training center.
From Shanghai, Jason and Cloris Li, the children of Yong Sheng’s founder, flew to France to represent the company.
The Yong Sheng Group, founded in 1993, established Hangzhou Yong Sheng Holdings in 2003, according to its website.
Yong Sheng’s two other subsidiaries include the textile company Yongsheng Advanced Materials, which holds an office in Queensway in Hong Kong.
The other one is SHINING 3D headquartered in Hangzhou’s Xiaoshan District. It specializes in 3D digitizing and 3D printing solution.
Sophie Hallette, makers of tulles and laces from Caudrey, France, has been in the business since 1887, according to its website.
The House of Sophie Hallette provided the lace used in the Oscar de la Renta dress worn by British-Lebanese lawyer Amal Alamuddin when she married one of Hollywood’s most eligible bachelors, George Clooney, in 2014.
The Commercial Court declared Desseilles Laces bankrupt on March 2, according to La Voix du Nord.
