29 November 2007
Palamon invests in Dress-for-Less
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Palamon Capital Partners (‘Palamon’), one of Europe’s leading mid market private equity firms, has invested in Dress-for-Less, Europe’s largest online designer fashion outlet. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Founded in 1999 and based in Floersheim, Germany, Dress-for-Less operates several full-price online shops for fashion brands and in addition sells end of season designer apparel items (www.dress-for-less.com).
Under the leadership of its Joint Managing Directors, Mirco Schultis and Holger Hengstler, the company has grown in excess of 30% per year and today offers a range of over 4,000 items of men’s, women’s and children’s apparel and footwear, including more than 250 different brands such as Ben Sherman, Calvin Klein, Dolce & Gabbana, Pepe Jeans, O’Neill and Tommy Hilfiger.
Palamon’s investment in Dress-for-Less will further support the Company’s expansion in both Germany and the rest of Europe, improve customer service and build corporate brand awareness.
Commenting on the transaction, Mirco Schultis, founder and Joint Managing Director of Dress-for-Less said: “I founded Dress-for-Less eight years ago and in that time successfully have built the company into the leading European designer fashion outlet. With the backing of Palamon we are well placed to reach the next stage in our development.”
Holger Hengstler, Joint Managing Director of Dress-for-Less added: “We are excited to be partnering with Palamon, which as a leading European growth investor, shares our vision of how to develop the company going forward. Based on our expertise in fashion and online retail sales, Dress-for-Less is set to grow rapidly within the fast expanding online retail market.”
Holger Kleingarn, Partner at Palamon Capital Partners, said: “We are delighted to join a business with such strong momentum, a proven business model and a successful track record. We look forward to working with Mirco, Holger and the other members of the team to build further on these achievements. Dan Mytnik, Principal at Palamon Capital Partners added: ”The online apparel market will continue to show very high growth rates across Europe. In Dress-for-Less we have found a high quality business that is well placed to benefit from this macro-trend.”
This marks Palamon’s ninth investment in its second fund, Palamon European Equity II, L.P., which was raised in 2006 and has commitments of €670 million. In Germany, Palamon is amongst others also an investor in Loyalty Partner, the operator of PAYBACK, Moviepark Germany, one of the country’s largest themeparks and incentives marketing specialist cadooz.
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