After growing 3%, InBrands joins Cia das Marcas to double sales
Valor Econômico
Affected by the crisis last year when it grew only 3%, InBrands, the fashion arm of Pactual Capital Partners (PCP) has joined Cia das Marcas in order to double the earnings. On Friday, both the companies closed an agreement that will allow the group to have revenues of R$ 540 million (US$ 300 million) this year. Of that total, R$ 290 million (US$ 161 million) come from the new brands. Cia das Marcas owns Richards, Salinas and Bintang. InBrands has fashion brands like Ellus, Isabela Capeto and Alexandre Herchcovitch in its portfolio. In the agreement closed last week, the founding partner of Richards, Ricardo Ferreira, becomes part of the Council of the fashion arm of Pactual. Ferreira and the CEO of InBrands, Bruno Medeiros, have neither informed the value of the business nor the percentage of stock swap.
According to the founder of Richards, the plans of the chain were already ambitious prior to the operation with InBrands. "We expect to grow 35% in 2010", he said. The chain currently has 67 Richards' stores, 26 of which are franchises, and 30 Salinas' store, with 21 franchisees. The latter, the beach fashion brand, exports to 42 countries and, in 2009, year of crisis when most of the sector had neither profit nor loss, it had growth in its earnings of 14%, from R$ 24.5 million (US$ 13.4 million) in 2008 to R$ 28 million (US$ 14.2 million) in 2009. Richards had growth of 6.8%, from R$ 182 million (US$ 99.5 million) to R$ 194.5 million (US$ 98.7 million). In 2009, Richards will open another eight stores, four of its own and four franchises. All new stores will feature a women's area, which today is present in only 18 of the current ones. Salinas will also gain eight other stores this year, all franchises.
"The association will allow Cia das Marcas to gain commercial scale in negotiating with suppliers and also in the financial, legal and administrative areas", said Gabriel Felzenszwalb, CFO of InBrands. He recalled Ellus has great experience in selling to multi-brand stores and such know-how will be passed on to the new brands. Richards works with 180 multi-brand stores and Salinas, with 400. The executives of Inbrands praise the commercial management of Cia das Marcas and they say it is an asset as valuable as the very brands of the portfolio. Ricardo, on his turn, commends the project of the new partner and says she will bring young talents to his brands, which will allow rejuvenation. The Inbrands takes over the administrative area of Cia das Marcas, but the development, marketing and design team will be maintained.
The joining of the companies began three years ago. "But we did not understand well the proposal", says Ricardo Ferreira. "In January, the business began getting off the paper", recalled Medeiros. "The negotiation was very fast. Only three months", he completes. The new group plans to be the number one of the sector, with a great high quality portfolio. Cia das Marcas also owns the brand Bintang, with two stores, one in Búzios and another one in Salvador, managed by young employees of Richards. "They were great employees, but they wanted to fly higher. Thus, we decided to help them develop their own product", says Ferreira.