Venus Fashion Inc. notified state officials Nov. 13 it will permanently lay off 129 employees at its Jacksonville headquarters Jan. 13.
The notice sent under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act said the affected employees work at the company’s headquarters office at 11711 Marco Beach Drive in the EastPark business park on the Southside.
“This decision to reduce our workforce has been exceptionally challenging and is a direct result of the economic turbulence facing the fashion retail sector,” Venus CEO Laura Bollier said in an emailed statement.
The women’s swimwear and apparel company did not say how many employees will remain after the layoff.
Venus filed a WARN notice in September 2020 saying it was laying off 120 workers at its North Jacksonville fulfillment center at 1 Imeson Park Blvd.
The company said at the time the layoff left it with 50 employees at the distribution facility and 550 total workers in Florida, mostly in Jacksonville.
Venus has been owned since 2009 by Bonprix, a division of Germany-based Otto Group.
“The complex market environment also continued to be challenging for the American brand Venus,” Bonprix said in a fiscal year-end news release in May.
“Bonprix ended the financial year in the USA with a low double-digit decline in sales and continues to focus on the digital transformation of Venus with digital marketing measures,” it said.
According to the Venus website, the company was founded in Jacksonville in 1982 under the name Titan Bodybuilding, “selling posing suits for male bodybuilders.”
It added women’s workout apparel in 1983 under the name Venus and eventually renamed the company Venus Swimwear in the late 1980s.
It became Venus Fashion after the acquisition by Bonprix.