Melanie Muller
Barbara Santamaria
Germany's Klingel Group buys womenswear brand Artigiano
German mail order retailer Klingel Gruppe has entered the UK market with the acquisition of British womenswear brand Artigiano, effective July 1.
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The Pforzheimer-based distance seller wants to "further develop the brand in the UK and increase its market share", it said.
"The UK is very interesting for us, because it is the second largest market for mail order retail in Europe, yet Klingel Group is not active there. Additionally, Artigiano's high quality Italian-style fashion for the 50+ target group strongly complements our already established brand portfolio," says Armin Bischoff, CEO of K-Mail Order (Klingel Gruppe). The firm is also analysing whether the Artigiano philosophy can be combined with Klingel's universe to create a new concept. Artigiano was purchased for an undisclosed sum.
This is the second acquisition for Klingel Gruppe in a few weeks. The company signed at the end of June a purchase agreement to acquire insolvent fashion retailer Creatrade and its subsidiary Schneider Versand GmbH. As a strategic investor, Klingel is also taking over further Creatrade subsidiaries with brands Conleys, Impressionen and MiaVilla, which were not affected by the insolvency.
The K – Mail Order GmbH & Co. KG operates under the name of Klingel Group, and is a distance seller based in Germany. The company employs at its headquarters over 2,000 employees, and has subsidiaries in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, France, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic, Russia and Slovakia.