Two French retailers to join forces

PARIS: French luxury department store Galeries Lafayette and online retailer La Redoute said yesterday that they planned to join forces to create a new leading player in the market for fashion and home furnishings.

“Galeries Lafayette Group, via its holding company Motier, announces its intention to acquire a 51% shareholding in La Redoute and to own 100% in the future,” the two groups said in a joint statement.

“The combination of the two businesses with their iconic brands would allow the creation of a new leading omni-channel retail group specialised in fashion and home furnishings, with French roots and international outreach,” they said.

“Thanks to the complementarity of their retail channels, offer and positioning, this transaction would create the leading player in the French apparel market in terms of revenues.”

Financial details were not disclosed, but the deal was expected to be finalised “over the next few months”.

The landmark tie-up would bring major benefits for both parties, the groups said.

Galeries Lafayette would be able to accelerate its digital transformation while La Redoute would “consolidate its future and a profitable and sustainable growth, by the backing of a long-term family-owned group.”

La Redoute describes itself as one of France’s leading e-commerce players in fashion and home furnishings, with revenues of £750 million and nine million unique monthly visitors.

Galeries Lafayette generates annual sales of £3.8 billion from 280 stores and employees a workforce of 14,000.