Swiss investor buys back Conforama

Information

In 2011, the South African Steinhoff Group had taken over the French furniture retail group Conforama; now Conforama Suisse has been sold to a Swiss investor. The Swiss daily newspaper "Blick" reported the buyer to be the entrepreneur Dan Mamane (48), who has been negotiating with Steinhoff International for over a year. According to "Blick", the economics graduate has so far invested exclusively in companies from the electronics industry; a company of the size of Conforama Switzerland has not been part of his portfolio before. In 2019, the 22 Swiss Conforama branches generated sales of SFR 450 million (around EUR 419 million); Dan Mamane's Power Data Holding, in turn, "only" achieved sales of around SFR 100 million (around EUR 93 million).

"The transaction may seem surprising from the outside, but for insiders it is not," Patrice Dupasquier (CEO Conforama Suisse) told the Swiss financial news agency AWP. He sees the Corona crisis as an opportunity to prove the efficiency of the Conforama business model. The lockdown-related losses in sales have already been largely made up, not least thanks to the company's flourishing online business. In addition, the 22 Swiss stores benefited from the fact that the borders to the neighbouring countries had been closed thus preventing shopping tourism. Conforama is one of the largest furniture retailers in Switzerland, employing over 1,200 people.

Carpet Home-Newsletter: Click here for free newsletter subscription