Expansion through acquisitions seems to be the favourite business strategy of Gabriel Cirlig, who has bought two firms over the past six months, a producer in Romania and an Italian lingerie exporter, reads BUSINESS Magazin.
The series of acquisitions is set to propel Jolidon towards becoming one of the leaders of the European lingerie market. In early 2007, Jolidon, one of the few Romanian companies that have managed to expand abroad, bought the majority stake in Italian lingerie producer Emmeci.
In the first few months this year as well, a second acquisition on the Italian market targeted the local rival of Emmeci, Lilly, which has a distribution network in 30 countries and annual production that exceeds 6 million lingerie items. However, before sealing this acquisition, Jolidon also bought the majority stake in Tricotaje Ineu plant.
In the wake of the two acquisitions, Jolidon's domestic production capacities will rise by 30% and a further three brands will be added to its portfolio - Lilly, Eclizia and Kelitha.
"Together with experienced firms, we can forge a powerful group on the international lingerie market, despite our short 15-year history". This is how the Cluj businessman explains the series of acquisitions sealed domestically and abroad.
Whereas abroad Cirlig targets well-known brands, domestically the owner of Jolidon is looking for plants that will allow him to boost lingerie and bathing suit production. During the past four years, Jolidon has become the majority stakeholder in another three companies.
The first on the acquisition list was Argos, in 2004. According to its own estimates, after the acquisition Jolidon gained over 40% of a lingerie market that exceeded 100m euros. Two years later, Jolidon bought LCS Conf textile firm.
"We're permanently making acquisitions," says Cirlig, hinting that he
