French group Rocher puts children's fashion brand Petit Bateau up for sale

Business

Petit Bateau flagship store on the Champs Elysées. Credits: Petit Bateau

Paris - French group Rocher announced on Wednesday that it is launching a "divestiture process for its children's fashion and home products divisions, including the Petit Bateau and Stanhome brands" in order to refocus on its core business, cosmetics.

“We have the financial resources to create a new dynamic by focusing our investments on developing the potential of our care, beauty and wellness brands,” said Jean-David Schwartz, the group's CEO, in the press release.

Petit Bateau for sale soon

The group, which owns the cosmetics brands Yves Rocher, Arbonne, Sabon and Docteur Pierre Ricaud, "will take the time to study acquisition opportunities that could offer Petit Bateau and Stanhome "a solid future, with partners driven by a vision of growth and sustainability," the press release said.

The Petit Bateau brand is active in 55 countries and has 370 of its own stores. The brand produces 28 million units annually and realises 55 percent of its turnover in France, 25 percent in Europe outside France and 10 percent in Japan, according to the press release.

Stanhome, a brand of household products, was founded in 1931 in the US and is today present in France, Italy and Mexico.

Rocher also announced the arrival of two “new independent directors” to its board: Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever from 2009 to 2019, and Elisabeth Sandage, former global president of the Helena Rubinstein brand.

In 2024, the Breton group achieved a turnover of 2.2 billion euros, an increase of 2.4 percent year-on-year, divided between 53 percent for the Yves Rocher brand, 13 percent for Arbonne, 6 percent for Sabon, 2.5 percent for Dr. Pierre Ricaud, 12 percent for Petit Bateau and 9 percent for Stanhome. The make-up brand Flormar was sold on September 30, 2024.

The group, founded in 1959 by Yves Rocher, is present in 118 countries through 2,500 stores and an online store.(AFP)

This article originally appeared on FashionUnited.FR. It was translated to English using AI and edited by Rachel Douglass..

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