2023-06-29 07:37:23
In front of the entrance to a Du Pareil au meme store in Paris, June 28, 2023. JULIE SEBADELHA / AFP
For five years, the fall in the birth rate has deprived him of customers. Inflation, which weighs on household purchasing power, and families’ recourse to buying second-hand clothes have done the rest. The brand Du Pareil au meme, specialist in layette and children’s fashion, requested its placement in receivership at the Bobigny Commercial Court, Wednesday June 28. The chain explained, in a press release to AFP, at the end of the day, its difficulties to overcome “social crises, the Covid-19 pandemic, the energy crisis and inflation”.
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Du Pareil au meme (DPAM) is a subsidiary of the Group for Children (GPE). Chaired by Paul Zemmour, founder of the Sergent Major chain, in 1987, now 73 years old, this group was formed through successive takeovers. He also owns Natalys, a specialist in childcare, which he bought in 2006. Nine years later, Sergent Major took over his competitor DPAM, then crippled with debts.
Because the difficulties of the brand founded by a theater costume designer, Simon Benharrous, in 1986, are not new. The concept, born in the city center under the beard of BCBG Jacadi, had first revolutionized the children’s fashion market in the 1990s by introducing what was not yet called “fast fashion”. That is to say pajamas and overalls that are frequently renewed, produced in Asia and sold at rock bottom prices in shops close to schools or nurseries, to delight young parents on their daily journey. It had made the fortune of its founders, but also of investment funds when it was listed on the secondary market in 1995, then withdrawn following its takeover by Olivier Halley in 2008.
850 stores in France and Europe
But the latter, heir to the founding family of the Promodès group, merged with Carrefour, had not managed to raise the bar despite several tens of millions of euros invested. A conciliation procedure was then initiated by the creditors of DPAM. With the support of Siparex, then of the investment fund Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners (EdRIP), which left the capital two years ago, Paul Zemmour, its competitor, worked to save it in 2011. The DPAM operation had then allowed Mr. Zemmour to double the size of his group and improve his equity by reaching nearly 400 million euros in turnover.
The group, which operates 850 stores in France and eight other European countries, is now in an unfortunate position to “reimburse its creditors”, according to his lawyer, Laurent Azoulai, of the firm T & A, specialist in corporate restructuring. After having lost 100 million euros in turnover during the Covid-19 period, in “reason for store closures during the pandemic”GPE achieved 275 million euros in sales in 2022.
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