The Veepee group remains one of the European giants in the sale of branded clothing online.
In a recent visit to the headquarters of l'Hospitalet de Llobregat, the founder of this multinational, Jacques-Antoine Granjon, advanced the results for 2023. “Revenues have grown by 7% to reach 3,200 million euros and ebitda, or gross profit, has been more than 5%. “We have consolidated our flash sales business model, which consists of launching temporary offers on branded items,” explained the CEO and majority shareholder of Veepee.
Despite this growth, the company remains below the levels recorded before the pandemic, when it exceeded 4,000 million euros. This is explained by the sale of its business in Mexico – which took place at the end of 2019 – and by the fall of the travel division (with little presence in Spain) due to the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
At the meeting, Granjon explained that the growth of the last year would not be understood without the robustness of its business in Spain, where the company gained ground with the acquisition, in 2016, of the Privalia platform, which was founded by Lucas Carné and José Manuel Villanueva. “Privalia has a lot of roots in both Spain and Italy. “We tried to eliminate the brand to operate under the Veepee name but it was a mistake and that is why we decided to keep it,” he acknowledged.
Despite the importance of its business in Spain – the second country in revenue after France – Veepee does not share billing data in this country. He assures, however, that the business has grown 12% in the last year, above the global average. The consolidation of its flash sales model is the main reason, as well as the growth of its brand marketplace and the development of its travel and advertising divisions, whose operations are strong in France but remain weak in Spain, a market where there are very popular online travel agencies.
Regarding the catalog, Granjon assures that “Veepee collaborates with more than 7,000 brands” and that “more than a thousand have been incorporated in the last year.” 60% belong to the fashion sector and 40% to other industries, such as electronics or cosmetics or travel.
In addition to France, Spain and Italy, the multinational also operates in Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Germany. In Latin America, the group has a presence following the acquisition of Privalia. Specifically, in Brazil, although the CEO says “it is not a strategic market.” In fact, Veepee sold the Mexican division under the same pretext. Now, Granjon has a very clear roadmap: focus on increasing sales of branded products in Europe.
