3SI: 3Suisses brand for sale

The 3SI group (formerly 3Suisses International) announced on Friday its intention of selling all of its e-commerce operations, including those of the long-standing French brand '3Suisses', which had to deal with major difficulties for several years.

"The 3SI group has taken the decision of putting up for sale all of its e-commerce operations in France, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic," according to a press release by the French group, since 2014 a subsidiary of German distance-selling giant Otto.

"The operations add up to €400 million, with a staff of 900 people," specified Antoine Pernod, the French group's spokesperson.

3SI now wishes to concentrate on service activities targeted to professional clients, notably on parcel distribution with Mondial Relay and on order preparation with Dispeo.

The retail brands which are due to be sold "in the next twelve months" are Unigro (Belgium, homeware), 3Pagen (Germany and Austria, home decoration and household utensils), Cemod (the Czech Republic, fashion items and seasonal decorations) and Cogemag-Excédence (France, inventory clearance).

3Suisses was founded in 1932 and has been faced with major difficulties for several years. Its distance selling business model has met with direct competition from the new international internet giants such as Amazon and Zalando. The brand must also challenge its old competitor La Redoute, which is trying to transform its operations to return to its former success.

Since 2009, 3Suisses has suffered losses for €650 million, and the situation has not improved in the last few years, despite efforts at repositioning. In 2015, sales amounted to approximately €120 million, compared to nearly €1 billion about ten years ago.