Kookaï's Antoine Bing steps down from GM role after just a few months
After only six months in charge, Antoine Bing is no longer the general manager of French womenswear retailer Kookaï. Bing was appointed in September 2018, taking over from Laurence Bénat, but FashionNetwork.com has learned from a source that he then left the company in March 2019. It is worth recalling that, in July 2017, Kookaï was sold by the Vivarte group to Australian group Magi, previously the womenswear retailer’s franchised partner in Oceania.
Bing joined Kookaï after working for two years as CEO of Parisian chocolatier Pierre Marcolini, and after being the deputy general manager of French label Paule Ka between 2002 and 2015.
When Bing was hired, Magi's President Robert Cromb said that his mission was to oversee “the transition we wish the group to make, and work with me to develop the group’s strategy during the next five to ten years.” Cromb has now taken sole charge of Kookaï's European business, as FashionNetwork.com was told by the company itself.
Bing was not the only senior executive to leave Kookaï: Matthieu de Mesmay (formerly with Mim), who had been the company’s HR director since March 2018, was recently replaced by Alexandra Dahan. Dahan was in charge of HR at Parisian label Zadig & Voltaire from 2015 to 2018, having previously worked in the same role at Marithé+François Girbaud for four years.
Kookaï was founded in 1983 by Jean-Lou Tepper, Jacques Nataf and Philippe de Hesdin, and then bought by French fashion group Vivarte in 1996. It is currently distributed via about 130 stores in France (of which 70 are monobrand shops), about 20 stores in Spain, 15 in Switzerland and 40 in Australia. Kookaï’s French company reportedly generated a revenue of €56 million in 2018.
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