Following its acquisition of apparel retailer
Alexon in September, private-equity firm Sun
Capital has bought womenswear retailer Jacques
Vert. The deal values Jacques Vert, which operates the
Jacques Vert, Planet, Precis
and Windsmoor brands, at £41 million. Sun
Capital, through its affiliate Minerva Bidco, now plans to merge
Jacques Vert and Alexon-recently renamed Irisa Group. In a
statement, the board of Minerva Bidco said combining the
businesses will create a stronger business with “real scale
in the womenswear apparel market”.
In separate news, Sun Capital has also bought golfing accessories
retailer American Golf for a rumoured £50
million. American Golf operates online and via 88 stores in the
UK. Last year, it had sales of £86.6 million. Its previous
owner was private equity investor LDC (Lloyds TSB Development
Capital), which backed a management buyout of the business in
2004.
As part of plans to grow its online business significantly over
the next five years, both in the UK and internationally,
Monsoon Accessorize has announced it is moving
to Hybris ecommerce platform. The Hybris suite integrates web,
mobile, call centre and in-store applications and will allow
Monsoon Accessorize to rollout new international websites for its
two interconnected brands isomg one central ecommerce system.
Hybris is working with its long-term strategic partner,
Portaltech, which will manage the integration of the new
platform. As well as offering multilingual capabilities, the new
sites will allow Monsoon to use click and collect, loyalty and
gift voucher services and order in-store, deliver to home
functionality.
British consumers will spend £186.4 million online on
Christmas Day and a further £367.8 million on Boxing Day.
These estimates represent a 12 percent increase on the total
spends last year reports IMRG.
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