By COLlive reporter
Haeres Equita, a group of investors led by a Swiss-Italian financier, was successful in its bid to buy the famous Borsalino hat company in a public action after lingered litigation.
Reuters news agency reported that a court in the Italian city of Turin approved a 6.4 million euro offer from the investor group led by businessman Philippe Camperio which has been managing the company since 2015.
The assets on sale included the company’s offices, its production site and machinery, the contracts of its 134 workers, and its network of stores, of which only one is fully-owned, it was said.
The company was put up for sale via an auction after a judge in the town of Alessandria, where the luxury brand was founded in 1857, refused last year to grant it court protection from creditors, according to Reuters.
Like many small and family-owned companies in the country, it lacked the funds and managerial skills to reposition itself in the competitive and fast-moving luxury market, Reuters reported.
“We are delighted to see the efforts we made in the last three years have come to a happy end,” Camperio said in a statement, adding that his group would continue to develop the brand with new collections and through expansion.
Sales at Borsalino, which produces some 150,000 hats per year, grew to some 17 million euros in 2017 from 15.5 million euros two years earlier.
Borsalino are commonly worn by Lubavitch chassidim in the United States and Israel. One of their efforts to grow sales has been to open the first Borsalino Brand Store in New York, located at 2917 Ave J in Brooklyn, NY.
VIDEO: Inside Borsalino
Filmed by Gianluca Miotto, Edited by Daniel Finkelman
BS”D
Hats off to Borsallino