Paris (AFP)

The iconic ready-to-wear house Sonia Rykiel, liquidated last July, will be revived by two of the founders of the Showroomprivé site, who want to "promote" the brand qualified as "flagship of French heritage".

In the absence of buyers, the Paris Commercial Court had pronounced on July 25 the liquidation of the ready-to-wear brand in great financial difficulty since the death of its emblematic designer in 2016.

Wednesday evening, the court decided between the twenty offers in the running who had expressed their interest in taking over the "assets" remaining from the label - essentially his name, his archives and his stocks.

"He authorized the sale of the brand's assets for the benefit of Eric and Michael Dayan", two of the four co-founders (with David Dayan and Thierry Petit) of the online business site Showroomprivé, according to a press release they published Wednesday evening.

"With their know-how and perfect expertise in the fashion, brands and digital sectors", the two entrepreneur brothers say they have "the objective of promoting Maison Sonia Rykiel in France and internationally, which thus remains a flagship of French heritage ".

"The Maison Sonia Rykiel is back in 2020, a new adventure for the brand and the two entrepreneurs," he said without further details. The redemption price is also not communicated.

In 2018, the Saint-Germain-des-Prés label, founded in the late 1960s, had recorded 35 million euros in sales, for a net loss of 30 million euros.

At the time of her placement in receivership, she also employed 131 employees.

- "second breath" -

The Dayan brothers put forward "their financial solidity and their expertise in this sector, two assets which will allow them to develop and give a second breath to the brand".

They also underline the fact that the brand "avant-garde on the liberation of women, finds French shareholders" and "thus remains a flagship of French heritage".

On a more strategic level, Eric and Michael Dayan believe that "this acquisition is part of their entrepreneurial journey, two years after leaving the site's operational management".

Showroomprivé, an online destocking group, garnered 672 million euros in sales in 2018. It also reduced its net loss to 4.4 million euros, against -5.2 million in 2017.

For its part, the house Sonia Rykiel, famous for its knitwear and its colorful stripes, was supported at the time of its liquidation on a network, in its own, of six shops as well as four "outlets" (destocking stores), and realized just over 50% of its sales in France.

In 2012, when she was the head of one of the last remaining independent fashion houses in France, designer Sonia Rykiel had decided to sell 80% of the company's capital to the Chinese investment fund Fung Brands (which has since become First Heritage Brands), holding company of the Fung family of Hong Kong, managed by the French Jean-Marc Loubier.

This fund - which also owns the Belgian luxury leather goods brand Delvaux and the shoe maker Clergerie - had risen to 100% in early 2016.

In seven years, some 200 million euros had been invested in the Sonia Rykiel brand by its shareholders.

© 2019 AFP