The company is closing or selling all 128 of its physical stores in North America, it announced in a statement. She 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 release information on how many employees would be laid off due to the closings.
Less than two years ago, Godiva was planning a massive expansion into the coffee business. The chocolatier opened its first coffee shop in the United States in New York City in April 2019 and announced that it planned to open 10 more coffee shops in New York and more than 400 in the United States. It was part of a plan to open 2,000 new cafes worldwide.
But that plan never came to fruition. Godiva depended heavily on shopping mall traffic, which had been plummeting even before the pandemic. But Covid was the last nail in Godiva’s coffin, along with dozens of other underperforming companies.
The retail apocalypse in particular has reached restaurants, shopping malls, businesses that rely on impulse buying and luxury retailers. Godiva represents all these doomed categories.