The Babyshop Group acquires Melijoe – creating the global leader within premium and luxury kidswear

Swedish premium children’s e-commerce group, The Babyshop Group announced recently that they have acquired 100% of the shares in iconic French childrenswear retailer, Melijoe, from the Belgian investment company, GIMV and Melijoe founder, Nathalie Genty. GIMV and Nathalie Genty will stay on board, and join an already strong and broad base of shareholders led by Verdane, a specialist growth equity firm that has invested in 75 Northern European consumer internet companies since 2003.

 

“From my perspective, clothes are a reflection of children’s emerging personalities. When I created Melijoe, I dreamt of an online store where parents could be free to pick and play with fashion for their kids. Joining Babyshop Group will give me the opportunity to further expand my vision of what Melijoe and our new sister sites should be and represent globally.”

Nathalie Genty, Founder & CEO of Melijoe

 

The Babyshop Group, comprising of the four market-leading children’s e-commerce brands, AlexandAlexa, Babyshop, Lekmer, and Oii Design, totalled over €100m sales in 2019. The deal further establishes the group as a leading player within luxury and premium children’s fashion globally.

 

”The work of Nathalie and the Melijoe team has been on our radar for many years and with this, we’re taking another step towards realising our vision of becoming the global leader in premium and luxury kidswear online. They have established a very high standard for customer experience in everything they do – a standard we can learn from. In turn, I’m positive that Melijoe will benefit from our scale, logistical capabilities, data science and e-commerce experience. We’re very excited to be a part of the next steps for Melijoe, preserving their unique market position.”

Marcus Tagesson, Co-founder & CEO of Babyshop

 

About The Babyshop Group

The Babyshop Group is the leading luxury and premium online retailer group for baby and children’s fashion and products. The Group operates alexandalexa.com, babyshop.com, lekmer.se and oiidesign.se as well as a number of retail stores, along with private labels designed and developed in-house. With an annual sales run rate of over €100 million, catering 140 countries and reaching over 1,000,000 customers monthly, The Babyshop Group headquarters is located in Stockholm with additional offices in London, Oslo, Paris and Seoul. Based in Paris, with customer service teams also located in New York and Hong Kong, Melijoe serves over 300,000 customers monthly. Stocking a highly curated edit from over 150 brands, and sales annually of over €20m, Melijoe has a reputation for leading design, quality and luxury.

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