PARIS – French occasion and communications company WMH Venture has acquired boutique inventive manufacturing company Petit Ami because it seeks to increase its actions in vogue, luxurious and artwork.
Phrases of the deal weren’t disclosed. Based in 2017 by Laurent Bandet, who beforehand labored for French model Agnès b., Petit Ami produces occasions together with vogue exhibits and showrooms for manufacturers together with Mugler, Nina Ricci, Space, Kolor and Y/Venture, and exhibitions for artwork entities like François Pinault’s Bourse de Commerce museum in Paris.
Initially referred to as FC2 Occasions, WMH Venture, an acronym for “We Make It Occur,” has grown within the final 5 years by way of a string of acquisitions designed to consolidate the group’s place in its 4 core areas: company and institutional occasions, public relations, spatial design, and incentive and enterprise journey.
Bandet, who turns into vice chairman of WMH Venture’s newly created artwork, vogue and luxurious division, instructed WWD that the deal will enable him to develop Petit Ami, with plans to open a department in Milan by the top of 2024.
He hopes to leverage WMH Venture’s current actions and its relationships with purchasers similar to luxurious group LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton to quickly double his crew of 20 individuals, that are unfold between inventive and manufacturing capabilities.
Petit Ami posted revenues of 6.7 million euros in 2022, versus 145 million euros for WMH Venture, which employs greater than 300 individuals in France and Belgium.
“The union with Petit Ami will allow us to satisfy the various wants of WMH Venture’s purchasers within the luxurious, vogue and the humanities and tradition sectors,” WMH Venture cofounders Marc Fischer and Franck Chaud stated in a press release.
Bandet plans to proceed working with rising designers whereas taking over bigger purchasers, profiting from Petit Ami’s community of artists similar to French musician Orelsan.
“We’ve sturdy relationships with artists, dancers and musicians, and the concept is to convey a powerful craft ingredient to our occasions,” he defined. “For instance, for showrooms, I usually faucet artists – whether or not younger or extra established – to work on the units.”
Going ahead, Bandet would additionally like to provide present units and occasions for performers. As well as, he needs to launch an endowment fund and an incubator aimed toward selling sustainable occasion manufacturing.
He famous {that a} key purpose for becoming a member of forces with WMH Venture is that it just lately turned a mission-driven firm with ISO 20121 certification for sustainable occasion administration, and ISO 9001 for high quality administration.
Petit Ami, which already repurposes decor components and prioritizes quick provide chains, hopes to foster additional analysis into supplies and design with a decrease environmental affect.
“We work on momentary occasions. What will we do with all these supplies?” Bandet stated. “I believe there’s a number of work to be accomplished on this space, and creating an incubator for individuals to tackle these challenges might be actually, actually fascinating.”
