Type Private Revenue US$8.1 billion (2010) Founded 1841, Sneek, Netherlands Parent organization Cofra Group | Industry Retailing Headquarters Vilvoorde, Belgium Number of employees 50,000 | |
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Area served Much of Continental Europe Key people Lucas Brenninkmeijer (Chairman & CEO)
Knut Bruggemann (Executive)
Thorsten Rolfes (Executive) Products Apparel/Footwear specialty Founders Clemens Brenninkmeijer, August Brenninkmeijer Profiles | ||
C&A is an international Dutch chain of fashion retail clothing stores, with its European head offices in Vilvoorde, Belgium, and Düsseldorf, Germany. It has retail stores in many countries in Europe, North America and South America. Its brands include Angelo Litrico, Canda, Clockhouse, Here+There, Palomino, Rodeo (ski and snowboard clothes), Westbury, Yessica, Yessica Pure, and Your Sixth Sense.
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History
The company was founded by brothers Clemens and August Brenninkmeijer in 1841 as a Dutch textile company, taking its company name from their initials. In 1906 Clemens' son, Bernard Joseph, started discounting in Amsterdam (Rekenen in Centen, in plaats van Procenten) and by 1910 there were ten stores in the Netherlands. They were from the German Brenninkmeyer family which traded in linen and textiles since the 17th century from its hometown of Mettingen, Germany.
For many years, C&A retail clothing stores were a major presence on high streets throughout the United Kingdom. C&A also opened stores in a number of out-of-town locations, most notably its store at the Merry Hill Shopping Centre in the West Midlands, which opened in November 1989. The company's strategy of selling budget clothes from high-rent city-centre retail stores made it vulnerable to a new breed of competitors operating in cheaper, out-of-town locations, including Matalan and the rapidly expanding clothing operations of supermarket food chains such as Tesco and Asda, and to expanding high street names such as H&M, Zara, and Topshop.
C&A in the United Kingdom was a notable example of an incorporated private unlimited company, which meant that it was not required to publish its financial statements under United Kingdom company law. In 2000, C&A announced its intention to withdraw from the British market, where it had been operating since 1922, and the last UK retail stores closed in 2001. Primark bought 11 of the C&A stores.
In June 2009, the company withdrew from the Argentinian market. C&A China competes with main clothing companies such as H&M and Zara.
The Brenninkmeijer family, through its company Cofra Holding AG located in Switzerland, continues to own the C&A group and the company's success has led the family to become the wealthiest in the Netherlands. The Brenninkmeijer family, however, now live in Geneva and Zug Switzerland, benefiting from the taxation climate.
The American singer-songwriter, actress and fashion model Beyoncé released her own clothing line, Deréon, in cooperation with C&A in the summer of 2010.
Stores
Number of C&A stores on 25 February 2016
Americas
Asia
Europe
In popular culture
United Kingdom ska act The Specials referenced the store in "Man at C&A" on the 1980 album More Specials. The phrase "Man at C&A" was later used to typify someone who was "sartorially challenged". In an episode of the popular sitcom Only Fools and Horses Delboy tells his brother Rodney that when they become millionaires, their clothes will "come from Man at C&A".