Due to difficult market conditions in the fashion retail market and funding difficulties, lief! lifestyle ran into financial difficulties. lief! lifestyle investigated international strategic partnerships and started the dialogue with store lessors and creditors to come to a solution for the troublesome situation. After several attempts to realize a going-concern solution, lief! lifestyle was faced with the reality that the only possible solution was a re-launch following insolvency.
At the beginning of May lief! lifestyle applied for suspension of payment, which has been granted on 6th May 2015. Subsequently the company has been declared bankrupt, on 29th May lief! lifestyle realized a re-launch. The new owner is the Kids Fashion Group (KFG) from Germany, which is part of the Kanz Financial Holding (KFH). KFH is currently operating in the children‘s clothing sector all over the world, where the company markets different brands such as: Kanz, Bellybutton, Marc O’Polo, Miss Sixty, Papermoon, Energie, Pampolina and Ticket to Heaven. With the re-launch lief! lifestyle has found the strong international partner it was looking for and given its strong brand name and the support of the many licensing partners, lief! lifestyle has a beautiful future ahead.
Lindenaar& Co advised lief! lifestyle in the investigation of going-concern possibilities, and eventually during the re-launch. The activities consisted of, amongst others, compiling an information memorandum, negotiations with KFH and the bank, and advising the shareholders and the management during the re-launch.
Profile KFH en KFG
The owner-managed Kanz Financial Holding (KFH) is a company settled in Germany operating in the children‘s clothing sector all over the world. The Kids Fashion Group (KFG) is part of the KFH, and is a global player within the retail market. The company is selling their various brands in more than 30 countries, with more than 280 retail- and 3000 wholesale accounts. The success of the dynamically growing company is based on long-term partnerships within the textile industry, a high quality awareness and close relationships to their customers. The client structure of the globally operating company partly consists of independent retail traders and partly of large trade chains.
Profile lief! lifestyle
The founders of lief! lifestyle, Yvonne Woudstra and John van den Herik, started the cheerful brand lief! in 2005 with a small and colourful collection of baby and children’s clothes. The brand has now expanded into a wide-ranging lifestyle brand for both children and adults. Thanks to this unique combination between fashion and lifestyle can lief! offer a massive variation in different product groups with various accessories and colourful products for the whole family!