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The company is closing or selling its 128 physical stores in North America, it said in a statement. It plans to complete the closings and sales by the end of March.
Godiva will keep its stores open in Europe, the Middle East and Greater China. The company did not disclose information on how many employees would be laid off due to the closures.
Less than two years ago, Godiva was planning a massive expansion by going into coffee. The chocolatier opened its first US cafe in New York in April 2019 and announced that it plans to open 10 more cafes in New York City and more than 400 across the United States. It was part of a plan to open 2,000 new cafes around the world.
But that plan never materialized. Godiva relied heavily on shopping mall traffic, which had plummeted even before the pandemic. But Covid was the final nail in Godiva’s coffin, along with dozens of other underperforming companies.
The retail apocalypse in particular has come for restaurants, mall stores, businesses that depend on impulse shopping, and luxury retailers. Godiva represents all of these doomed categories.
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