The minimalist French ready-to-wear brand, founded by Jean Touitou in 1987, has agreed to sell a majority stake to the LVMH and Groupe Arnault-backed private equity firm L Catterton, according to a statement obtained by BoF. L Catterton will help the brand scale internationally and grow its digital business. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
A.P.C.’s current chief executive François-Cyrille de Rendinger will take the role of president and deputy CEO Joël Sraer take his place as CEO. Touitou, who serves as A.P.C.’s creative director, will continue to be involved in the business alongside his wife, art director Judith Touitou. They will continue to hold a significant minority in the brand.
Best known for its raw denim selvage jeans, A.P.C.has built its brand around an understated – but always fashionable – style. Or as BoF editor-at-large Tim Blanks put it in a profile of Touitou for the brand’s 30th anniversary in 2017, “sometimes boring, always relevant.”
That aesthetic has attracted a devoted global following that stuck with the brand even as trends veered more toward streetwear and logo prints in recent years. A.P.C. operates about 80 stores worldwide, mostly in Europe, the US and Japan. It’s also carried widely by wholesale retailers, ranging from Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdales in the US to Printemps in France. Online sales for the brand represent nearly 30 percent of revenue — and 80 percent of its sales come from outside France.
L Catterton, founded in 1989 by Frank Vest, William Simon and Michael Chu (who currently serves as CEO alongside Scott Dahnke) has built a portfolio of mid-sized brands in need of a deep-pocketed partner to scale further. Its investment in A.P.C. is likely on the smaller end for the firm: it acquired Birkenstock for over €4 billion in 2021; it acquired a majority stake in Ganni in 2017 and was reportedly shopping the brand at a $700 million valuation last year.
