Boris Saragaglia is the CEO of Spartoo, which has just bought the assets of the JB Martin brand.

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R. MEIGNEUX / SIPA

Spartoo raises the dead.

The image will probably not please them but it illustrates its strategy well.

Based in Isère, the online shoe sales company is one of the market leaders in Europe.

This Thursday, she announced that she had bought the assets of the shoe brand JB Martin, born in Fougères (Ille-et-Vilaine) in 1921 and recently liquidated.

According to Spartoo, the repurchase of the assets is accompanied by the acquisition of 20,000 pairs of shoes that JB Martin had not sold.

Five former employees of the company have also been hired and will be associated with five employees of Spartoo to reflect on the models of tomorrow.

The online store also acquired the assets of the Christian Pellet brand, which was owned by JB Martin.

Spartoo hopes to relaunch the brand

The shoe manufacturer had made good times in the Fougères region, where he employed up to 1,400 people before being subjected to the law of the world market.

Several social plans followed one another until the liquidation in July 2020. "We were sick before the Covid, we had significant losses in 2019 but the Covid did not allow us to raise cash quickly", explained then a trade unionist.

The factory was the last one specializing in footwear in Fougères.

With the acquisition of the assets, Spartoo hopes to relaunch the brand, known for the quality of its products but which had never succeeded in establishing itself on the world market.

"Spartoo will allow JB Martin to benefit from its power of Internet distribution, mainly internationally to market its new collections, particularly in Asia", promises the group in a press release.

Founded in 2006 by Boris Saragaglia, Paul Lorne and Jérémie Touchard, Spartoo.com is one of the leaders in the sale of shoes on the Internet in Europe.

It employs 400 people for a turnover of 190 million euros.

The group has acquired several brands in the past such as GBB or Easy Peasy.

In 2018, he acquired the André brand before requesting his placement in receivership last year.

André has since been taken over by François Feijoo, former director of the brand between 2005 and 2013.

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