After the recent sale of Fusalp to two members of the Lacoste family, two other French brands of skiwear that were rather prominent in the 1980s, Degré 7 and Duvillard, are changing ownership. Idealp, a company run by Jean-Philippe Caille that controls Ski Lacroix and other operations, is taking over the two brands and other assets for €100,000 in conjunction with their management.
Caille's partners in the acquisition are Jean-Jacques Wroblewski, a French industry veteran who has been acting as commercial director for the two brands, and Sébastien Palliard, who had been assigned the divestiture of the sports operation of their former holding company, Avance Diffusion. Its other assets in the fashion sector are being sold to other investors
The new owners of Degré 7 and Duvillard have agreed to rehire 16 out of the 20-odd remaining employees who were involved with the two brands, keeping the design studio and the prototyping workshop at Le Creusot. One of their goals is to develop the international business, which has been languishing.
Prior to the sale of the assets, a French court had decided to reject previous takeover proposals and to place Avance Diffusion into liquidation on April 3. The liquidators received half a dozen acquisition offers. Two French retailers, Intersport France and Go Sport, were among the candidates. They offered to pay more than Idealp but the liquidator felt that they did not provide sufficient guarantees for the future viability of the operations. Idealp is projecting a turnover of €4 million for the next winter season, doubling to €8 million by 2017, without confirming present agency contracts in the Benelux countries and the U.K.
Backed by institutional investors and high-level officials, Bernard Liatti, a former top executive of the Rossignol group, made an offer, too, but one of the lenders pulled out at the last minute. He is now working on another interesting project.
