Next company has captured the JoJo Maman Bébé baby boutique, celebrating its latest expansion.
The retailer has records of merging with competitors such as a joint venture with Gap in the UK and a 25 per cent stake in Reiss, and it sells hundreds of other brands on its website.
He received a 44 percent stake in JoJo, the rest was bought out by asset manager Davidson Kempner. He did not say how much he paid, but will invest 16.3 million pounds in the brand.
Extension: 87 JoJo Maman Bébé stores selling maternity clothes and baby clothes will remain open and there will be no job losses
The agreement will separate businesses, but JoJo will move to Total Platform Next, which offers an online sales infrastructure. The firm was founded by current CEO Laura Tennyson in 1993. In the year that ended last June, it earned pre-tax profits of £ 5.8 million from sales of £ 63.5 million.
87 JoJo maternity clothing stores will remain open and there will be no jobs. Tennyson will be replaced by commercial director Gwyn Milligan.
Next CEO Simon Wolfson said his firm would “support JoJo in the next phase of its growth”.
Lord Wolfson added: “We are excited to see what can be achieved by combining the exclusive JoJo product with Next’s infrastructure and Davidson Kempner as our investment partner.” The next said the deal would increase profits from next year.
