C4 Industries buys majority stake in French fabrics producer Maison Lelièvre

A new chapter is starting for French fine fabrics producer Maison Lelièvre. The company, founded by the Lelièvre family in 1914 and specialised in upholstery fabrics, wallpaper, silk and bespoke rugs, and also the owner of two other century-old manufacturers, has sold a stake to an external investor for the first time. The investor is C4 Industries, a Paris-based investment fund operated by C4, which defines itself as “an entrepreneurial platform with a wider scope than that of a simple investment firm.” Maison Lelièvre employs 140 people and generates a revenue of €18 million, 60% of it from outside France. C4’s founder Pascal Cagni, a former senior executive at Apple Europe, has become the president of Maison Lelièvre, which recently joined the Comité Colbert.

The value of the transaction has not been disclosed. C4 Industries has confirmed to FashionNetwork.com it is the anchor investor in Maison Lelièvre, with a majority stake. Emmanuel Lelièvre, member of the family’s fourth generation, remains as managing director, and will be supported by two deputy MDs: Frédéric Capelli, who has been with Maison Lelièvre for 15 years and takes charge of operations and finance, and Laura Thivolet, investment principal at C4 Industries for the last six years.

It is the first investment in France’s art-of-living sector carried out by C4 Industries, which is expected to soon finalise another operation involving a long-established French heritage company, investing in glass manufacturer Arc International. Other investments are also on the cards.

Over the years, Maison Lelièvre has amassed an impressive artisanal heritage portfolio alongside its main brand, Lelièvre Paris. In 1973, it bought Quenin, a Lyon-based weaver of quality fabrics for haute couture and upholstery, founded in 1865, and in the 1990s it acquired Tassinari & Chatel, Lyon’s oldest silk manufacturer, founded in 1680.

“With the arrival of C4 Industries as anchor investor in Lelièvre, we will not only bolster our business but also accelerate our growth, while retaining our family DNA. With C4 and Pascal Cagni, we are keen to preserve our century-old industrial expertise, relying on our workshops in France, which have enabled us both to reproduce ancient fabrics for the Palace of Versailles and to execute complex projects for leading architects and interior designers,” said Emmanuel Lelièvre in a press release.

C4 Industries will draw up an investment plan to support the growth of Maison Lelièvre’s three companies. In the press release, the group stated that “special attention will be paid to the workshop in Panissières, in the Loire [region], one hour from Lyon, where the group produces most of its fabrics and all of its silk,” and where it will transfer the hand-weaving workshop currently located in the Croix-Rousse district of Lyon.

Cagni founded C4 in 2004. Besides C4 Industries, whose investment portfolio includes four other companies, all from the digital tech sector, C4 also operates C4 Ventures, an investment firm that since 2014 has bought stakes in 50 start-ups, nine of which have turned into unicorns, like Foursquare; C4 Collection, a luxury hospitality company; and Cagni Foundation C4, involved in educational and equal opportunity initiatives.