According to media, L Catterton together with Financiere Agache bought the majority of the German shoe company Birkenstock. The family stays on as minority shareholders.
L Catterton is a Joint Venture of LVMH Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (Bernard Arnault), Group Arnault (Bernard Arnault family) and Catterton.
Financiere Agache is a holding of Bernard Arnault as well.
Certainly, Birkenstock isn’t a fit for the organization of the worlds leading group of luxury brands LVMH.
Yet Bernard Arnauld has a brilliant sense for iconic brands. And Birkenstock was iconic, even before Heidi Klum was pictured in them.
Already in the 1980s Bikenstock shoes were popular with medical staff in hospitals and medical doctors. Then eco-friendly people, Greenpeace followers and members of the green movement picked them up.
In the 1990s West coast Americans discovered Birkenstock. The CEO of a famous sneaker company was shown in an interview wearing Birkenstock. And if he prefers those over his own shoes …
Birkenstock signed a few licenses too, for socks and beds for example.
Supposedly Birkenstock was valued at €4 Billion.