Calida: Guido Campello Out As Cosabella GM

Calida has replaced Guido Campello as general manager of Cosabella, with his older sister, Silvia Campello. She has been with with the company, founded by her parents in the 1980’s, since 1998, most recently as head of finance and operations.

Switzerland-based Calida, which acquired Cosabella early last year, also stated of the brand that it acquired early last year: “Business development continues to lag significantly behind the original business case. The more cautious reassessment of the business potential led to an adjustment of the targets and thus to impairments (including goodwill and brand) of CHF 33-43 million [about $40 million to $48 million at current exchange rates] and additional expenses of around CHF 6 million, which will be charged in 2023.”

Calida noted that in 2023 sales at Cosabella “remained at the previous year’s level in the first half of the year, as reported, thanks to the strong online business.” When Calida Group reported sales for full year 2022, it stated Cosabella provided the Group an operating contribution of 3.357 million CHF (about $3.7 million) on sales of 14.173 million CHF (about $15.5 million). On the day that it originally announced the acquisition of the brand, Calida revealed Cosabella had 2021 sales of “$29 million and an EBITDA of $4.8 million.” The purchase price of Cosabella comprised “a total package of $80 million including earn out.”

Calida chairman Felix Sulzberger, reported that “After the growth strategy defined in 2021 failed to deliver the planned business development, the Calida Group will concentrate on optimizing the business with the existing profitable Group brands over the next three years.” Part of that strategy had included the acquisition of German brand Erlich Textil, a brand which it announced, earlier this year, it is already divesting itself of.

The company emphasized, “In the future, the Calida Group will focus on sustainably improving the profitability of the Calida, Aubade and Lafuma Mobilier brands and on exploiting the growth potential of Cosabella.”

In addition, Calida reported the “termination of the multi-brand webshop onmyskin.com with processing costs of around CHF 3 million,” and the associated termination of “around 20 jobs.”

Noting that Calida “assumes that general conditions will remain challenging and that consumer sentiment will therefore be dampened,” and that sales and earnings are “expected to be below the high level of the previous year, the “impairments of Cosabella and the processing costs for onmyskin.com totaling CHF 42-52 million,” as well as “the impairments for Erlich Textil of CHF 19 million,” will result in “a corporate loss in the current year. However, only CHF 5 million of these one-off expenses totaling CHF 61-71 million will be cash effective.”

Looking ahead, Calida stated, “The new strategic alignment with the reduction of the brand portfolio, the abandonment of the development of Group platforms and the focus on operational excellence will already have a positive impact on the earnings situation in 2024.” — NM