Camaïeu

€ 1,470 million, May 2007

Consumer

Clothing retailer

Business
On May 22nd, 2007, Cinven acquired a 67% controlling stake in the French women’s fashion retailer Camaïeu.

Camaïeu is a leading women’s fashion retail chain. It offers affordable ‘ready to wear, easy to buy’ apparel for women between 20 and 40 years of age operating a network of 745 stores, of which 495 are in France.

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.

Camaïeu has pursued a successful strategy of carefully controlled international expansion via directly operated stores and franchises. Outside France, the chain’s network consists of 62 stores in Poland, 52 in Italy, 21 in the Czech Republic, nine in Spain, three in Belgium, three in Slovakia and 100 franchises in Russia and the Middle East. As of May 2009, Camaïeu also sells its products through an e-commerce website in France.


Strategy
Camaïeu has a strong management team and a business model that offers low cyclicality and fashion risk, an efficient infrastructure and an exportable concept. The Company has achieved best in class margins with very strong cash flow generation and high ROCE on new openings. Cinven’s investment thesis is to support and accelerate the management team’s proven strategy of rolling out new stores across its core markets.