(PRESS RELEASE) LYON, FRANCE — Bollé Brands has announced the sale of Cébé to D.MO/RACER.
Founded in 1892 in the Jura region, Cébé is a pioneer in sports eyewear. In the 130 years since its founding, Cébé has earned a reputation for producing stylish and technically advanced high-quality sport performance sunglasses, ski goggles and helmets. Since joining the Bollé Brands Group in 2009, the brand’s reputation has been enhanced by continued investment in innovation and its strong partnerships with renowned athletes, most recently Francois D’Haene, the record-breaking four-time winner of the men’s title at the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc.
D.MO specializes in project management, and industrialization of products in the outdoor world and its executive team of Sébastien Delsaux and Maxime Bos are former employees of Cébé. RACER is a French entity created in 1927 with expertise in manufacturing gloves and protective equipment. D.MO/RACER have joined forces to buy Cébé; the acquisition is supported by RACER’s historical finance partners, Upperside Capital Partners and 123 IM.
Peter Smith, CEO of Bollé Brands Group and resident of Bollé Safety said: “This is a good transaction for Bollé Brands and D.MO/RACER. We are very proud of managing Cébé’s transformation over recent years and ensuring that it has come out of COVID with a broad innovation pipeline and solid opportunities for growth. We are equally proud to be passing this business onto Sebastien and his team in such good health, and we know that he will be the ideal guardian to guide Cébé to new heights. We wish Sebastien and his team the best of luck and look forward to their success.
“The decision to sell Cébé is part of our strategy to focus Bollé Group on core brands for further global growth. Underpinned by our investment in product innovation and digitalization, our global brands of Bollé, Serengeti, and Spy+ are all growing at double-digit rates. The group has strong ambitions for each brand with strategic launches in the coming weeks.”
Commenting on the proposed deal, Sébastien Delsaux, founder and CEO of D.MO said: “Since I first began working on Cébé in 2010, I have been its biggest fan. Its long heritage and history of excellence makes Cébé one of the pioneers of our industry, and I am very proud to be guiding the brand on the next phase of its journey. We believe we have assembled the right team and strategy to help bring Cébé to the next level. It is, therefore, a great pleasure to be able to write the next chapters of Cébé with D.MO and RACER, with the desire to establish it more than ever in its industry by enhancing its heritage and thus giving it back certain independence.”
François Benaben, president of Sport & Luxury, Bollé Brands Group: “Having contributed to the history and development of this brand in recent years, we are very proud of what we have achieved. We see this beautiful brand leaving the Bollé family with a certain emotion. Still, we also know that D.MO/RACER will give it all the attention and support it deserves, to allow it to take a new step in its development and write a new page in its vibrant history.”