The Lübbecke-based Liberty Fashion Holding GmbH gets a new owner. On Monday, Peter Friedrich, the CEO of Liberty Damenmoden GmbH, confirmed at FashionUnited’s request that the former Tchibo board member and Karstadt boss Peter Wolf would acquire all shares in the company. The specialist magazine Textilwirtschaft (TW) had previously reported on the transaction.
Wolf already held a minority stake in the women’s fashion retailer, which was founded in 1976 and currently has 114 branches and employs 400 people. According to the company, he will now take over both the 76 percent stake in the Hamburg investment company Arcadia and the shares from managing director Friedrich. With the purchase, Wolf will be supported “with mezzanine capital from VR Equitypartner,” Liberty said.
After the change of ownership, nothing should change in the processes of day-to-day business. Wolf will “not be operational,” said the current CEO. In the management board, Friedrich is still responsible for the areas of sales, marketing, organization and human resources, while Ulrike Drüner is responsible for purchasing and e-commerce.
As VR Equitypartner announced, however, the new sole shareholder wants to push ahead with reforms: “With the reorganization, Liberty’s business model is to be consistently developed into a relevant omni-channel player with the further expansion of online business, but also of stationary trade,” explained das financial company in a statement. In addition to the existing cooperation with Amazon, “the connection to other online marketplaces will take place”. In addition, the Liberty online shop is to be “connected to the classic social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram and Blogger via links”.
Christian Futterlieb, Managing Director at VR Equitypartner, has high hopes for the plans: “We have known Liberty Fashion for a long time and are convinced of the boutique concept with the cultivation of personal customer relationships. In addition, the company is well positioned across the entire value chain and offers further growth opportunities in the online sector,” he said in a statement. “I am pleased that we can make an important contribution to this with our mezzanine financing.”