San Remo closes all its perfumeries in Catalonia and leaves 115 employees jobless
The company already filed for a workforce reduction plan in April 2025 and is now closing all 25 stores permanently.
BarcelonaThe Catalan perfumery chain San Remo has permanently closed its doors. Last Wednesday, the company ordered the closure of all 25 of its stores in Catalonia – 23 in Barcelona, one in Sabadell, and one in Girona – and, according to the CCOO union, as reported in the ARA newspaper and confirmed by the Catalan government's Department of Labor, has filed for a temporary layoff plan (ERTE) due to force majeure. Furthermore, the company has informed its staff that it will file for bankruptcy. As a result, since Wednesday, February 4th, up to 115 employees have been awaiting news from the company and have been instructed not to report to work.
CCOO representatives told ARA that the refusal to open the stores "came as a surprise, without even notifying the works council," and regarding the temporary layoff plan (ERTE) due to force majeure, they assume "that the labor authority will deny it," as they don't believe it meets the requirements. "There is a lot of uncertainty; the workers don't know what will happen to them, or if they will be paid in February," says Sergio Calahorro of CCOO. However, they assure that, for the moment, there are no outstanding salaries from previous months.
Years of losses
San Remo, a chain founded in Barcelona in 1963 and acquired in 2023 by the Madrid-based Nutritienda Healthcare & Beauty, has been struggling with losses for years. In fact, the latest published accounts are from 2024 and show a final balance of €878,000 in the red. At the end of 2020, with the Closure of the historic La Balear perfumery chainSan Remo transferred a portion of its stores, practically all of those it had in Barcelona city, to competing companies, such as the San Remo perfumeries themselves. But San Remo's future will not be any brighter. In April 2025, the Barcelona-based chain implemented a workforce reduction plan (ERE) that resulted in the dismissal of around thirty employees and the closure of six stores. Sources familiar with the situation recall that nearly three years ago, San Remo also closed its Barcelona warehouse, and that since then, everything had been centralized in Madrid. For now, the website remains operational, and although online sales continue, the same sources assure ARA that the website will also close soon and that "the San Remo brand will disappear completely." ARA has been unable to contact the company despite several attempts.