Delvaux Will Be Acquired By Richemont Group In The Near Future

As the world's oldest leather company, the Belgian luxury handbag brand Delvaux will be acquired 100% of its equity by Richemont group.

Prior to that, Delvaux was in the hands of the billionaire brothers Feng Guojing and Feng Guolun. In 2011, the Fung brothers acquired a majority stake in Delvaux through first heritage brands, an investment company of Fung brands, and Temasek, a Singapore investment company.

However, as a result of the outbreak, Delvaux's turnover fell by 40% in 2020, and 26 local employees in Belgium were laid off in February of that year.

"At present, it seems that selling may be the way to save the brand," said Marco Probst, Delvaux's chief executive

Fortunately, Richemont group, which owns Cartier, van clenburg, Earl, Jijia and other jewelry and watch brands with "hard luxury" as its core product, announced in a statement on Wednesday that it would acquire 100% of the equity of Delvaux, a Belgian luxury handbag brand, from Feng brothers, but did not disclose the specific transaction amount. After the deal is completed, Delvaux will be placed in other divisions of the Richemont group.

Philippe Fortunato, chief executive officer of the fashion and accessories business unit of Richemont group, commented: "in the past 10 years, Delvaux has been innovating and creating many excellent products, which has laid a solid foundation for the long-term development of the brand. The acquisition of Delvaux will strengthen the participation of Richemont in the high-end leather goods market. "

Lifen group said that it will empower Delvaux from omni-channel and digital aspects in the future, and accelerate the global expansion of the brand, aiming to bring this bag brand with a long history than Hermes.

Delvaux has a history of nearly 200 years. In 1829, founder Charles Delvaux founded the Delvaux brand in Brussels, Belgium, one year earlier than the founding of the kingdom of Belgium.

With exquisite craftsmanship and outstanding creative quality, the brand was awarded the title of "Royal supplier" in 1883. In 1908, Delvaux took the lead in applying for the formal application for leather handbags, which can be called the inventor of modern luxury handbags.

In 1933, Franz schwennicke, an agricultural engineer with no experience in leather products, took over the company from Edmond Delvaux, the last member of the Delvaux family. Since then, Delvaux has become a high-end luxury brand, and referring to the operation mode of haute couture, * * has introduced the concept of season in leather goods field.

Under the leadership of schwennicke and his wife Solange, the Delvaux leather family has created many famous products. One of the most important is the "brillant" designed by Paule goethals for the Brussels World Expo in 1958.

The bag is still in production and is the first product design in the world to put the brand initial "d" as a logo on the bag lock.

Such a "treasure brand", how to get out of the circle and get more consumer recognition has become the key. Looking at the recent strategic layout of Lifen group, digital channel will undoubtedly be one of the important ways to help Delvaux "rebirth".

In recent years, RiFeng group has made continuous efforts in the field of fashion e-commerce: the group not only owns the online shopping website net-a-porter, but also jointly invested in the luxury e-commerce platform farfetch with Alibaba Group in November last year to operate the online sales business of farfetch in China.

Since the beginning of this year, the stock price of Lifeng group has risen by 38%, and its market value is now 63.3 billion Swiss francs, a record high. Therefore, for Delvaux, it is undoubtedly a good news for Delvaux to be acquired by Richemont group, which can help promote the brand on the one hand, and reduce the possibility of being sold again on the other hand.

However, it remains to be seen how Delvaux, such a "niche" and "cool" brand, can maintain its original positioning and tonality, while making more consumers willing to pay for it.