Global Fashion Group (GFG) is a Singaporean publicly traded

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...

holding group. In May 2019, GFG reported net

revenue In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operations of the business. Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some companies receive reven ...

of over €1,359.7 billion for financial year 2020.https://ir.global-fashion-group.com/download/companies/globalfashion/Annual%20Reports/LU2010095458-JA-2020-PN-EQ-E-00.pdf GFG is led by co-CEOs Patrick Schmidt and Christoph Barchewitz. Schmidt, formerly CEO of THE ICONIC, is based in

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , su ...

, Malaysia. Barchewitz, formerly from Kinnevik AB, which is GFG's lead investor, is based in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, UK.

History

Global Fashion Group (GFG) was established in 2014 through a consolidation of fashion e-commerce regional companies backed by Kinnevik and Rocket Internet. Its regional companies Dafiti, , THE ICONIC,

ZALORA Global Fashion Group (GFG) is a Singaporean publicly traded e-commerce holding group. In May 2019, GFG reported net revenue of over €1,359.7 billion for financial year 2020.https://ir.global-fashion-group.com/download/companies/globalfashion/A ...

and

Jabong Jabong.com was an Indian fashion and lifestyle e-commerce portal founded by Praveen Sinha, Lakshmi Potluri, Arun Chandra Mohan and Manu Kumar Jain. In July, 2016 Flipkart acquired Jabong through its unit Myntra for about $70 million. In February ...

(later sold) were founded in 2011 and 2012. In 2011 and 2012, the GFG regional companies began operations with a business model of selling inventory to customers from its own warehouses. From 2013, the GFG regional companies started creating their own

private-label A private label, also called a private brand or private-label brand, is a brand owned by a company, offered by that company alongside and competing with brands from other businesses. A private-label brand is almost always offered exclusively by th ...

brands, such as Lost Ink and ZALORA (formerly Ezra). In April 2015, Romain Voog was appointed chief executive officer of GFG. He retained the role for approximately 3 years. In 2016, GFG rolled out its Marketplace platform across key markets to complement its traditional inventory-led model. In April 2017, GFG appointed Cynthia Gordon, a board member of Kinnevik, as the new Chair of GFG

Board of Directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

. In February 2018, Patrick Schmidt and Christoph Barchewitz were appointed co-chief executive officers, succeeding Romain Voog. As of July 2019, it is now listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: GFG).

Geographical operations and presence

GFG is registered in

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

, and headquartered in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

and

, UK. Through its four regional companies, GFG currently operates across 24 markets with a total population of more than 1 billion, serving a fashion market estimated to be worth over €350 billion. Since their launch in 2011 and 2012, the five GFG regional companies have developed online fashion platforms in their respective markets. The Group operates more than 10 warehouses across the world, including THE ICONIC's new 19,000sqm "fulfilment centre" in Australia and ZALORA’S new Regional e-Fulfilment Hub in Malaysia. As of 31 December 2018, GFG has more than 11 million active customers and over 10,000 employees.

International brands

In April 2017, ZALORA established a partnership with

Abercrombie & Fitch Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) is an American lifestyle retailer that focuses on casual wear. Its headquarters are in New Albany, Ohio. The company operates three other offshoot brands: Abercrombie Kids, Hollister Co., and Gilly Hicks. As of Februar ...

. This partnership will provide Abercrombie & Fitch access to more than 600 million of ZALORA's online customers.

Private labels

From 2013, the GFG regional companies started creating their own private label brands, with in-house design teams and collaboration with local designers. GFG private label brands include Lost Ink, ZALORA (formerly EZRA), ZALIA, 24:01 and Something Borrowed.

Business figures

In April 2018, GFG reported net revenue of over €1 billion in 2017 (excluding Jabong and Namshi), with sales up 19.9% from 2016. Still on its path to profitability, GFG improved its adjusted

EBITDA A company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (commonly abbreviated EBITDA, pronounced , , or ) is a measure of a company's profitability of the operating business only, thus before any effects of indebtedness, stat ...

margin from (12.5)% in 2016 to (8.9%) in 2017. It credits this improvement with investments and efficiency gains in marketing and fulfilment. Namshi was the first GFG regional company to achieve full-year profitability in 2016 with an adjusted EBITDA of €2.5 million. GFG ended 2017 with €257.3 million in cash on a pro-forma basis.

Fundraising and M&A

Fundraising

In 2015, GFG raised €150 million from existing investors Kinnevik and Rocket Internet in an internal financing round. GFG secured additional funding of €330 million from existing shareholders led by Kinnevik and Rocket Internet during H1 2016. The funding round resulted in a cash balance of €342.6 million at the end of H1 2016.

Acquisitions

In 2015, GFG acquired sports and outdoor activities e-commerce company Kanui, and kids/ baby-focused online retailer Tricae. Both deals are undisclosed and the two Brazil-based businesses have been integrated into Dafiti.

Strategic partnerships

In February 2017, GFG announced a strategic partnership with one of the Philippines’ oldest and largest conglomerates, the Ayala Group. Ayala invested to take a 49% ownership in ZALORA Philippines.

Divestments

In March 2016, GFG's

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

n business Dafiti sold its operations in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. In April 2016, GFG's

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

n business ZALORA sold its operations in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

and

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

to retailer

Central Group Central Group consists of a variety of diverse investments in various corporations in Thailand and abroad, including investments in retail, property development, brand management, hospitality, and food and beverage sectors, and in digital lifes ...

for an undisclosed amount. In August 2016, GFG sold its Indian business

Flipkart Flipkart Private Limited is an Indian e-commerce company, headquartered in Bengaluru, and incorporated in Singapore as a private limited company. The company initially focused on online book sales before expanding into other product categories ...

for US$70 million in cash. On December 13, 2022, GFG successfully completed the sale of Lamoda's business in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

and

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

to Yakov Panchenko, owner of the

Stockmann Stockmann plc is a Finnish retailer established in 1862. Stockmann's eight company-owned department stores are in Finland (six), Estonia (one), and Latvia (one). There also was an additional nine Stockmann-branded department stores in Russia o ...

department store chain.

References

{{Reflist Online clothing retailers of Singapore Retail companies established in 2011 Internet properties established in 2011