Showroomprivé Cuts 11% of Workforce Amid Financial Woes and Strategic Shift

French online event sales group Showroomprivé, which currently employs approximately 1,100 individuals, announced a significant "reorganisation project" on Tuesday. This initiative is projected to result in up to 121 job cuts, representing 11% of its total workforce, by the second quarter of 2026. According to a press release from the company, which was founded in 2006, these job reductions are motivated by "business reasons" and will affect 80 positions in La Plaine Saint-Denis, 23 in Roubaix, and 18 in Sables-d'Olonne.

The restructuring comes in the wake of challenging financial performance for the group. Showroomprivé reported a net loss of €17 million in fiscal 2024, a stark contrast to the €500,000 profit recorded in 2023. During the same period, sales declined by 4.5% to €646.5 million. More recently, the first nine months of 2025 saw the group's sales volume fall by 10.3% to €630.5 million, with net revenue dropping by 12.2%.

Showroomprivé attributes the need for this reorganisation to a confluence of market pressures. These include an "unfavourable macroeconomic environment," a growing trend among brands to bypass intermediaries and sell directly to consumers, the expansion of the second-hand market, and increasingly intense competition within the e-commerce sector.

The reorganisation plan is designed to "rationalise and streamline the company structure," according to Showroomprivé. As part of this strategic overhaul, the group has pledged to "invest significantly" in key technological areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), mobile usability, payment security, and digital marketing. The new operational framework is specifically intended to "rely on more widespread process automation and on AI-driven content generation, following a model that has already been adopted by several competitors."

This move follows a series of recovery measures announced in the first quarter, which aimed to establish The Bradery, an e-tailer acquired in 2022, as "the French leader in premium event sales" and introduce it to the luxury segment. Additionally, the group had planned to migrate its Beauté Privée site to Shopify, develop a marketplace business, and launch a permanent assortment. An early indication of the impending restructuring emerged in mid-October when Showroomprivé signed a letter of intent to divest its 52.75% majority stake in The Bradery to its senior executives and founders, Timothée Linyer and Edouard Caraco, in a transaction valued at an estimated €23 million—a notable U-turn less than four years after the initial acquisition.