An Italian equity fund, Consilium SGR, has acquired a majority stake of 50.1 percent in this Italian team sports apparel specialist through a major capital increase to sustain its strong growth and its expansion into new markets. The terms of the transaction were kept confidential, but the multiples are understood to have been in line with the current valuation of publicly listed companies.
Macron is projecting an adjusted Ebitda margin of between 13 and 15 percent for this year on its sales, which rose by 25 percent to €45 million in 2010. Higher raw materials costs and shortages of products, which are made for the most part in China, affected its profitability slightly last year, but the situation has become more normal as the company has been able to pass on some of the cost increases.
Founded in 1971 and working initially as a contract manufacturer, Macron began to market its own line and its own brand in 1997, and it signed its first sponsorship deal with the Bologna FC football team in 2001. The company's sales have been growing at an average rate of 28 percent annually since 2004, when its major shareholder, Francesco Bormioli, bought the company and appointed Gianluca Pavanello as its chief executive. Bormioli now owns 35 percent of Macron's shares and Pavanello, a former official of McKinsey, holds the balance.
The goal now is to reach an annual turnover of at least €100 million by 2014, with sales outside Italy growing from 60 to 70 percent of the total. In the short term, Pavanello wants to consolidate the company's position in markets such as France, Spain and the U.K., and enter new markets such as Germany.
He is confident that Macron can be an alternative to Erima in the important German market, considering the fact that the two companies now have a similar market share in France. Pavanello is also looking for opportunities in the medium term to enter the U.S. and other markets in the Middle East and the Far East. It already has a small presence in the Persian Gulf.
One of the growth engines for the company recently has been the establishment of Macron stores, for the most part franchised, whose stock is continuously replenished from the company's two big distribution centers in Italy. In only a year and a half, a total of more than 60 such mono-brand stores have sprung up in Italy, France, the U.K., Spain, Portugal, Greece and Canada.
They carry team and technical sportswear supplied by Macron, which is often printed out or embroidered by the retailers themselves for use by local clubs and sports organizations. The main sports addressed by Macron, which sponsors about 70 major teams, are regular football, 5-a-side football, rugby, handball, volleyball, basketball and baseball. Some 8,800 clubs and teams wear its garments and accessories, including sports bags, caps and balls, buying them from about 750 different shops.
Macron's product range is slightly more expensive than that of Italian competitors such as Errea and Legea, but the company claims that it offers better quality, design and service. The range comprises some 500 different styles and 15,000 SKUs that are permanently available from its warehouses.
Macron has about 60 employees at its head office near Bologna and a dozen at its Chinese sourcing office in Tianjin. The company plans to ship out between 3.5 million and 4 million garments this year, and its warehouses can hold up to 3.7 million items at peak times.
