Maison Lejaby taken over by a Franco-Indonesian partnership

Maison Lejaby is changing hands. The French company specialising in premium lingerie was placed in receivership on January 2. While its owner since 2019, Thierry Le Guénic, had announced in April that he was abandoning his plan to continue the business for lack of convincing new partners, the future of the brand and the situation of its fifty or so employees depended on external takeover bids submitted to the Lyon Commercial Court.

On May 7, the court ruled in favour of the project put forward by Indonesian industrialist Salim Podiono and his Mirae group, which had been taken to court by its French partner, GC Consult, owned by Lyon-based entrepreneur Guy Chifflot. The former boss of hygiene company Orapi is the partner of the Indonesian industrial group specialising in lingerie. As part of their project, the pair had set up a new company based in the Rhône named Lejaby Maison de création, which is now the new owner of the French brand founded in 1930. The Lyon Commercial Court validated the project with a sale price of 453,000 euros, according to the ruling consulted by FashionNetwork.com.

Two other players in the fashion or lingerie industry had also positioned themselves to take over Maison Lejaby: the owners of Pimkie via their company Lee Cooper France and the brand’s Tunisian industrial partner Isatex, part of the Les Ateliers ISA group headed by Michel Desmurs.

Of the three bids on the table, the winning bid was the best and had the support of the staff representatives, explains Olivier David, CFDT elected representative and secretary of the works council. “The offer includes 22 of the company’s 48 employees, with a balance between departments. The new management team is currently taking stock of the premises at Rillieux-la-Pape. The teams will be able to get back to work after a few weeks’ wait.” The new owners must now put together their plan to relaunch the brand.

Maison Lejaby had three shops in Lyon, Paris VIIe and Strasbourg, as well as 36 corners in the Galeries Lafayette department stores and a corner at Le Bon Marché. It was forecasting sales of around €12 million in 2022, but had made losses in recent years.

Following Habitat, which went into compulsory liquidation on December 28, 2023, and the clothing brand Burton of London, which was also liquidated in February, another company owned by entrepreneur-investor Thierry Le Guénic has been affected. This time, buyers have taken over the brand and some of the employees. The fact that one of them is an international player could open up opportunities for the brand in Asia and on the American market.