Ivanka Trump announced on Tuesday that she would end the activities of her brand of clothing, footwear and accessories, whose development she had limited to avoid conflicts of interest with her position as a counselor in the White House.
After experiencing a sharp rise in sales in 2016 in favor of the presidential campaign, the brand had suffered the impact of the election of Donald Trump, several retail chains deciding in particular to dereference it.
"After 17 months in Washington, I do not know if I will ever resume this activity, but I know that until further notice, my attention is focused on what I am doing here," said Ivanka Trump in a statement to AFP.
"This decision is the only right way for my team and my associates," she added. The 18 employees of the company will be fired.
Launched in its current form in 2014, the brand benefited from a partnership with the G-III Apparel Group, which manufactured and distributed clothing and accessories.
Positioned in the mid-range segment, at affordable prices, it achieved a turnover of 47.3 million dollars in the 2016/17 financial year, closed at the end of January 2017, up 61%, according to figures published by G-III.
After the election of her father and her nomination as a White House counselor, this mother of three had retained her majority stake in the brand but had paid into a trust to minimize the potential for conflict of interest.
A source close to the brand recalled that after the creation of the trust, the company had worked with a specialist to ensure that it complied with the recommendations of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) and had "taken measures which went beyond the legal provisions ".
However, several congressional representatives have regularly expressed concern about the potential for conflicts of interest posed by Ivanka Trump's participation in her company.
After being alerted by the Law Commission of the House of Representatives, the brand had renounced, in 2017, a partnership with the Japanese textile group Sanei, one of whose shareholders was, indirectly, the Japanese State.
In late May 2018, the American anti-corruption association Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew) noted that Ivanka Trump was granted trademark registration by China a few days before Donald Trump released ballast on the case of the Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer ZTE.
A damaged image
In general, the brand's activities abroad were closely monitored and often suspected of benefiting from the influence of the Trump clan.
In May 2017, three Chinese activists were arrested in China while investigating factories producing shoes for the Ivanka Trump line. Held for several weeks, they were released at the end of June 2017.
After a time incarnated the voice of reason in the Trump clan, able to push her father to moderate his position on some issues, she saw her image deteriorate, criticized for its inaction and its lack of impact on the Trump administration.
Since the inauguration of Donald Trump, several chain stores, including Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus in the United States and Hudson Bay in Canada, had chosen not to sell items bearing the name of the daughter of the President of the United States.
The decision to stop its activities "has nothing to do with the performance of the brand and is only related to Ivanka's decision to stay in Washington until further notice," said a source close to the mark.
"The structure of the brand was built on a growth model," added the source. The departure of the founder for Washington and restrictions on the brand to avoid conflicts of interest "have limited its ability to grow, in the United States or abroad," making development difficult.
"Brand perceptions are now very polarized and she has become a lightning rod for protest and boycott," said Neil Saunders, GlobalData Retail's director.
"Even if the company is still viable," he added, "the pursuit of his business has become much more complicated and these problems would only have increased."
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