Takeover majority stake Petit Vehicule by Japanese retailer

The Japanese casual clothing chain Fast Retailing is taking a 95 percent stake in France's second-largest lingerie chain, Petit Vehicule, for €70 million. The Japanese retailer, which operates the ‘Uniglo' brand stores, intends to become one of the world's leading casual clothing companies by 2010, reports the Financial Times.

Petit Vehicule is the owner of the Princesse tam tam lingerie brand, which operates 86 stores in France and whose products are available in department stores in the UK, Italy and Germany. The brand generated sales of €65 million (£44.0 million) last year. Fast Retailing will acquire its share in the French company by the end of January and said that it might bring the brand to Japan, although it first plans to strengthen the brand in France and other European countries. The company also has 51 percent of the voting rights in French apparel maker Nelson Finances, which owns French brand Comptoir des Cotonniers. It plans on introducing this brand to Japan next year.

Earlier this year, the Japanese company announces its intention of spending Y300 billion (£1.42 billion) to Y400 billion on mergers or acquisitions during the next three to four years. Fast Retailing's target is annual group sales of Y1.000 billion by 2010. For the fiscal year ended August, the company reported sales of Y383.9 billion and a net income of Y33.8 billion. Largely to a slow home market, Uniglo's same-store sales growth has risen only 0.6 percent in the last year. Furthermore, the brand's product range did little to tempt the Japanese shoppers.

In an effort to boost sales Uniglo has given its merchandising strategy a face lift by reducing some of its product cycles, especially those for women's wear. Although these clothes only represent 10 percent of women's wear, the company plans to increase that percentage to 50 percent in the mid-term.