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A team of PwC Switzerland led by Marco Tremonte and Andreas Plattner acted as lead advisor to the shareholders of Anouk SA in the sale of the company to Imperial Spa.
Bologna/Basel, May 7, 2020. Imperial Spa, a leading fashion group Made in Italy, announces the acquisition of a majority stake in Anouk SA (“Anouk”), the Swiss woman’s multi-brand fashion retailer, from the Rueff family. The transaction was implemented by setting up a new company, Imperial Retail Switzerland AG. Founder and CEO of Anouk, François Rueff, will retain a minority stake and remain the Chief Executive of Anouk.
Anouk operates 49 stores across all regions of Switzerland and has around 200 employees. It offers a diversified brand portfolio for women aged 30 to 50 that look for quality fashion at a reasonable price. Thanks to this new acquisition by Imperial, Anouk will not only continue offering the Please brand but also widen its range by the other brands of the Italian group, namely Imperial and Dixie.
Imperial, founded in 1978 by Adriano Aere and Emilia Giberti and headquartered in Bologna, is the leading group in Italian fast fashion. Today, the company controls the Please, Imperial and Dixie brands. The company employs more than 700 people across its design, wholesale and retail activities. In 2019, the Group generated a turnover of 200 million euros, with significant growth compared to the previous year.
Emilia Giberti, co-founder and president of Imperial, comments: “Having been a brand partner and supplier for many years, we have a long-standing and trusted relationship with François Rueff and Anouk. We very much look forward to continuing working with the Anouk team. Anouk shares the same idea of fast fashion along with the vision to provide best quality and value to its customers.
This transaction gives us the opportunity to add significant value by acquiring strong retail capabilities and management know-how that we can leverage globally. The launch of Imperial’s online store in Switzerland through the Anouk brand will further enhance the reach and efficiency of our digital network. This acquisition also allows us to extend our retail business abroad, which is in line with our current expansion strategy that has included openings in the Middle East and aims at opening new markets soon.
Finally, our Group acquires a healthy and stable commercial retail network capable of guaranteeing its sales volume in Switzerland. This is of high strategic importance to us given that the Swiss customer spends significantly more on fashion compared to its peers in other European countries.”
François Rueff, founder and CEO of Anouk emphasizes: "I am convinced that the synergies with Imperial will further strengthen our business and allow us to make new long-term investments into vertical integration of the supply chain and e-commerce. While Imperial has been very important to our commercial success in Switzerland thanks to the Please brand and the 'Made in Italy' production, the Group understands the significance of the loyal customer base and the team of Anouk.
Thanks to the new partnership with Imperial, our customers will be the first to benefit from the latest designs and innovations in the collections of Please, Imperial and Dixie.
Anouk has always been a multi-brand retailer and our customers enjoy the brand diversity in our boutiques. We are pleased that we will continue to sell a variety of brands in the future as part of the new agreement. For me personally, it is a privilege to know that Anouk has found the right home as part of my succession planning. I am excited to continue our collaboration in the coming years.”
This new agreement testifies to the vigor of the fashion business despite of its challenging context today. Italian entrepreneurship can react to difficult macroeconomic issues and new challenges with a creative and dynamic approach as well as with strong strategic intuition.
Imperial Spa and Anouk SA have agreed not to disclose further economic and financial details about the transaction.
