Former Quik President Takes Helm At ORAGE, LOLË

ADMIN

• August 27 2009
• 472 views
• 2 comments

Former Quiksilver President Bernard Mariette has been named president and CEO of Coalision Inc., the company that owns apparel and outerwear brands Orage and Lolë. Coalision is a partnership with private equity fund Kilmer Capital Partners and is based in Montréal.

Here’s the release:

Coalision Inc., a company founded in 1989 in Montréal (Canada) by Evelyn Trempe and Eric D’Anjou, currently generates most of its revenue in North America through the selling of its sportswear brands Orage and Lolë to highly active consumers looking for modern and original styling:

- Orage has been redefining skiing and free lifestyle riding for 20 years and is a cult brand for those who live to ski and for mountain sports, from Whistler to Laax or New York City.

- Lolë is designed for women who make the most of every moment and who are looking for stylish and technical apparel, both for sports and to “Live Out Loud Every day”.

With his track-record at Timberland and the incredible success-story of Quiksilver, Bernard Mariette has now chosen Coalision to pursue new challenges.

“I first joined Coalision as a director, accepting the invitation of Eric D’Anjou and Kilmer Capital, the private equity fund that is investing in Coalision’s future growth. In addition to sharing identical values with the co-founders Eric, Evelyn and Jean-Pierre Ferrandez, Executive Vice-President of Orage, I soon realized that the Coalision brands, the quality of their products, the fresh spirit of their team, and Kilmer’s vision and support would allow us to develop something very strong and compelling.

“Thus, I accepted an operational role to accelerate the company’s growth in North America and to further establish its brands in the rest of the world.”

For Eric D’Anjou, the co-founder of Coalision with Evelyn Trempe - who will both remain actively involved in the company’s management - “Bernard Mariette is a visionary whose successes and track record speak for themselves. He has redefined the world of board sports during his 15 years at Quiksilver. We are incredibly lucky to welcome him onboard.

“In addition to becoming a shareholder, he has accepted to be an integral part of Orage and Lolë with the goal of making them stronger and more global brands. The entire Coalision team is looking forward to working with Bernard and those who will join him in this exciting new adventure.”

André La Forge, Coalision’s Chairman and Managing Partner at Kilmer Capital adds: “We are thrilled that Bernard agreed to join Coalision as President and CEO, following several months of discussions. Kilmer partnered with Coalision in December, 2008 with the ambition of assisting the company to achieve world-class status and to accelerate the development of its brands. Thanks to Bernard’s leadership, we believe that Coalision not only will meet its growth objectives, but will exceed them. “

About Bernard Mariette:

Bernard Mariette holds a master degree in management and an MBA from the University of Bradford (United Kingdom). He started his career as a financial controller at Marks & Spencer Europe, then L’Oréal and Timberland France & Spain, before joining Quiksilver, first as Vice-president Europe (1994-99) before he was successively promoted to President Europe (1999-2005) and President of Quiksilver Inc. from 2001 to 2008.
Quiksilver Europe sales increased from 35 million USD in 1994 to 700 million USD in 2005, and Quiksilver Inc sales from 621 million USD in 2001 to 2.4 billion USD in 2007.
Retail stores went from a handful in 1994 to a network of more than 600 in 2007.

About Coalision:

Born from the fusion of the words “coalition” and “collision”, Coalision perfectly reflects the essence of our company: a strong coalition of souls that comes from the healthy collision of ideas. Coalision owns and manages the ORAGE and LOLË brands, distributed through more than 2500 retailers across Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia.
www.coalision.com

About Coalision brands
www.lolewomen.com
www.orage.com