Camaïeu
Business description
Camaïeu is a leading European retailer of women’s ready-to-wear clothing. At the time of the acquisition by Cinven, the company had approximately 560 stores, of which more than 420 were in France and the balance in Poland and Italy. It offers affordable ‘ready to wear, easy to buy’ apparel for women between 20 and 40 years of age.
Camaïeu is a trend follower and a pricing leader. The company’s sophisticated systems and processes (procurement, logistics, restocking and product mix) enable it to optimise sales through a continuous flow of competitively priced products at high volumes. At an average 200 square metres, the size of Camaïeu’s stores offers potential for further expansion in smaller catchment areas where larger competitors cannot justify a presence.
Cinven strategy
In April 2007, Cinven acquired a controlling 65% stake in Camaïeu (75% of the voting rights) from Axa Private Equity. Under the rules of the Paris stock exchange, Cinven then made an offer for the balance of the publicly held company, after which Cinven owned 67% including share options. Cinven’s consumer sector and French teams had developed a relationship with the management team and had a clear understanding of the business model, based in part on the firm’s experience with CBR, the German ‘value for money’ retailer.
Camaïeu has growth potential, best-in-class margins and strong cash flows, and is relatively resilient to customer spending cycles because of its price positioning. Cinven’s strategy for Camaïeu is to create value primarily through further roll-out of new stores in core and new markets building on the rapid development, high profitability and return on capital of new store openings.
Hugh Langmuir
Benoît Valentin
Xavier Geismar
Jean-François Duprez
Président du Conseil de Surveillance
Christian Watry
Président du Directoire
