Vestiaire Collective Expects First Profit in 2026

Vestiaire Collective Expects First Profit in 2026

Vestiaire Collective expects to rake in its first annual profits in 2026, more than 15 years after the fashion resale platform was created, as it eyes expansion in the US.

The Paris-based company chalked up earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization during the end-of-the year shopping season, chief executive officer Bernard Osta said during an interview in his office Wednesday. The value of goods sold on Vestiaire Collective’s website was slightly below €1 billion ($1.18 billion) last year, giving the company €200 million in revenue, Osta added. Gross margin was above 50 percent, he said.

Founded in 2009, Vestiaire Collective was created to allow shoppers to buy and resell used high-end handbags and other fashion pieces, extending their life cycle. The closely held platform has ridden the wave of consumer awareness of sustainable consumption.

Europe represents about 70 percent of revenue, while Vestiaire Collective’s US market garners about 20 percent even after the company bought Tradesy, an American resale platform, in 2022. Asia, mostly led by Hong Kong and Singapore, makes up the rest. Osta said he sees the potential for the US to account for a bigger piece of the overall pie.

“There’s a huge potential in the US market,” he said, noting that the average basket per shopper stands at around $500, roughly 10 percent higher than in Europe at current exchange rates.

The global resale market is expected to reach as much as $360 billion by 2030, according to a BCG and Vestiaire Collective report from October, which estimates that the “second-hand market is expanding three times faster than the first-hand market.”

Asset management company Eurazeo is the platform’s top backer with a 25 percent stake. Vitruvian Partners, Condé Nast, BPI France and Softbank are other key shareholders with stakes ranging between 5 percent and 10 percent, he said. Gucci owner Kering SA bought a stake of about 5 percent during a funding round in 2021.

Vestiaire Collective’s valuation in 2024 fell to about €1.1 billion, down from €1.4 billion in 2021, Osta said. The drop stemmed from a period of slowdown following the boom during the pandemic years when consumers stuck at home shopped online.

The platform recently underwent management changes with the departure of Maximilian Bittner, who was CEO for almost seven years. He was replaced in October by Osta, formerly the platform’s chief financial officer. Co-founder Fanny Moizant announced last month that she was leaving too. “This was not a decision I initiated nor one I expected,” she wrote in a LinkedIn post.

The company’s headcount stands at about 600, including more than 100 who work on authenticating the luxury products available on its platform, Osta said. Vestiaire Collective has seen its headcount drop since the highs of 2022, he said without specifying by how much.

“We’re seeking to be operating efficiently,” he said.

By Angelina Rascouet

Learn more:

Vestiaire Collective Co-Founder Exits

Fanny Moizant, who co-founded the luxury resale site with Sophie Hersan and Sébastien Fabre in 2009, announced her departure on LinkedIn on Monday, saying ‘it was not a decision I initiated.’

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