ShowroomPrivé buys The Bradery

The ShowroomPrivé group has announced the acquisition of a 51% stake in French event sales website The Bradery, with the option of acquiring the remaining 49% by 2026. The Bradery's founders, Edouard Caraco and Timothée Linÿer, will stay in charge, with the mission of doubling the site’s sales volume within three years. The Bradery’s name remains unchanged. The value of the transaction was not disclosed but, according to an AFP source, ShowroomPrivé invested €10.2 million in the operation.

“This operation is part of the group's strategy to move upmarket, since it will allow us to offer our members direct access to an extended range of products in the high-end segment,” said ShowroomPrivé's CEO David Dayan. “The Bradery’s community is younger than ours and complementary to it, and the site is infused with the energy typical of a young team led by talented entrepreneurs, in line with ShowroomPrivé’s culture and values. (…) This acquisition is highly strategic for us because it complements our portfolio, consisting of generalist site showroomprivé.com and the more specialised Private Beauty site. It is also fully consistent with realising our plan to become a benchmark for smart shopping, accelerating the digitalisation of consumer brands and promoting affordable and sustainable consumption,” added Dayan.

The Bradery claims to have 200,000 regular customers and more than 400 partner brands. In 2021, it targeted a revenue of €50 million. The site is chiefly aimed at young consumers interested in premium fashion labels. The average age of The Bradery’s customers is 27, and the average purchase basket is worth approximately €100. The site has 300,000 Instagram followers. The Bradery’s acquisition by ShowroomPrivé is expected to be accretive by 2024, and is entirely financed by the group's free cash flow.

“This backing is an opportunity for us to join a leading European event sales player with a well-established organisation, whose operations have been tried and tested in the course of a 15-year experience,” said Edouard Caraco and Timothée Linÿer. “By remaining independent, we will continue to offer The Bradery’s partner brands a secure and rewarding showcase, while giving them access to an enlarged customer base and further improving our value proposition,” they added.

In 2021, ShowroomPrivé increased its revenue by 3.8% to €723.8 million, while its sales volume was €922 million, up by 3.1%. EBITDA was €48.2 million, up from the €42 million recorded in fiscal 2020, when the group turned a profit again thanks to a 13.3% revenue rise. This was notably due to the positive impact the pandemic had on online consumer goods sales in the same year.

The ShowroomPrivé group has been prudent in its forecasts for fiscal 2022, anticipating a slump in revenue in H1 and “increased pressure on its purchasing terms, which will have an impact on gross margin.” The group is aiming to gradually rebalance its inventory levels as soon as production and shipping operations will be fully restored. The invasion of Ukraine and its impact on the apparel industry (from skyrocketing transport and energy costs to dwindling consumption) could of course interfere with this process.

The group stated that in fiscal 2021 it reached 11.3 million customers (up by 6.3%), who placed 13.7 million orders, down by 3%. And while in 2021 the average number of orders per customer fell to 4.2, average purchasing basket value increased by 8.9% to €48.2.

ShowroomPrivé buys The Bradery

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