Desigual and the Enduring fund compete over Pronovias, an icon of weddings in low hours | Economy | EUROtoday

Those who have been initially of the Pronovias success story bear in mind the ambition of Alberto Palatchi, who within the sixties started to pilot the bridal vogue firm that he had inherited from the lace and embroidery retailer that his father based in 1922 underneath the identify The Swiss. “I want the lady of the house to marry the same brand that the wife marries.” chacha“, he said. He achieved it, and with flying colors. Pronovias became a giant that reached 50% of the market share in Spain. At its peak, it had a turnover of around 150 million, with high margins that allowed it to convert a third of those income into profits. After turning the company into an international benchmark, in 2017 Palatchi sold Pronovias to a venture capital fund for 550 million euros. Since then, the company has for his particular way of the crossan accumulation of problems that has led it to the current situation: these days a court is analyzing the value of the company, on the verge of bankruptcy proceedings, to decide who gets the remains. Desigual and the Enduring fund have presented offers, but the fit that Pronovias may have in any scenario is unknown.

The sale of Pronovias once again tests the resilience of the Catalan business class. Pronovias is one of the icons of the Catalan bourgeoisie in the 20th century, one of many companies that knew how to capture the winds of the market, opted to go out and sell abroad, and gave Catalan textiles a second life of prestige when the mythical factories of the Llobregat River, which had starred in the particular Catalan industrial revolution, had long since moved to other countries with cheaper labor. It is also one of the icons of entrepreneurship, founded on the history of the Palatchi, a Sephardic Jewish family of Turkish origin, who arrived in Barcelona after World War I, and who built a world-class company from scratch.

For this reason, among the two candidates to rescue Pronovias, the Generalitat and the business world prefer Desigual, although few understand what motivation Desigual may have to buy. Given the decline of Pronovias, the Catalan Administration moved to have another Catalan company or one with a relevant presence in Barcelona save the company, and after trying, without success, with Mango and Tendam (former Cortefiel), it was Desigual that has taken a step forward. This company is also one of the icons of Catalan textiles with an international vocation – it was founded in 1984 in the Raval neighborhood, and is now present in 107 countries – and it also has the aura of entrepreneurship of the enigmatic founder, Thomas Meyer, of Swiss origin, who, based on the design of a denim jacket, became one of the richest people in Spain.

The court has Desigual’s proposal on the table and also that of Enduring, an American investment fund. Desigual is the Catalan and industrial option, while the arrival of Enduring would imply adding a new fund in the history of failed experiences with the funds that Pronovias has managed since Palatchi sold the company to BC Partners.

The failure of funds

BC Partners suffered the consequences of the pandemic and the cancellation of weddings, but the drop in income, losses and the increase in debt that Pronovias had in those years cannot be explained only by covid. The company, under the leadership of CEO Amandine Ohayon, carried out a strategy of purchasing companies, fragmenting the company’s international structure, and alliances with designers, which over time proved to be ill-advised.

The situation became so precarious that, in 2022, the creditor funds Bain and MV Credit took over the company in exchange for a reduction in the debt incurred by the previous owner. The new CEO, Marc Calabia, came from Springfield, and despite the new strategic plan, the new ownership was unable to turn the situation around. According to sources familiar with the entire process, it even got worse, with a deterioration in the relationship with wholesalers, and poor commercial management. Calabia left in July 2025, and was replaced by an executive with a more financial profile, Cristina Alba, who despite trying to get fully into the business, found herself prevented from injecting more money by the funds, which had already contributed more than 135 million without seeing a return.

The 2025 results of Pronovias, which has a large headquarters in El Prat de Llobregat, show this decline: the company had a turnover of 88 million euros, 15% less than the previous year, and obtained a negative gross operating result of nine million (compared to the positive of five million in 2024). However, as explained by the same sources, the funds have worked to cleanse the company of a debt that reached 131 million in 2023. However, the company still needs an injection of about 20 million euros of capital.

Given these circumstances, the owners decided to present the prepack bankruptcy, a step prior to the bankruptcy, and the offers that the judge has on the table are very similar to the plan presented in the prepack. This involves disinvesting in the companies acquired in recent years, remaking the structures with the wholesalers and cutting employment: of the 600 workers that Pronovias has – between the central offices and the commercial networks and points of sale, a workforce that already suffered an ERE in 2024 – both Desigual and Enduring plan to keep around 400, according to several sources consulted.

The future of Pronovias

Palatchi’s return is completely ruled out, and his son has already founded his own brand. The thing is between Desigual and Enduring. The judge will make the decision this April, and it will depend on the price of the offers, the program of staff cuts and points of sale that each proposal foresees, among other aspects. Beyond this, the difficulty of the operation lies especially in the fit that Pronovias may have in the current bridal fashion market, as well as in the company that finally takes over it. Firstly, because of the growth prospects that Pronovias has in the current bridal market: this company has based its growth on buying relatively cheap dresses from wholesalers, especially Asian ones, to sell them in a personalized way and with a good margin in its more than 120 stores and 4,000 points of sale around the world, under a prestigious brand that managed to consolidate a very fragmented market. According to sources in the sector, especially after the pandemic, this market is now very atomized again: brides prefer to get married in dresses from designers and small houses but with personality, and a giant like Pronovias has little experience.

Secondly, if the buyer is Desigual, the challenge is to fit a business as specific and complex as that of wedding dresses into another, that of ready-to-wearwhich does not have the same logic, although they are part of the same world. Wedding dresses require personalized and exquisite treatment (“a bride in principle is a client who will not repeat, but will recommend,” recall industry sources), an alterations team, and very specific supply chains.

Despite these difficulties, Desigual can make the most of a really iconic model and switch it round in the identical approach that it has rotated its personal model and all its shops, which have been renovated in recent times, whereas on the identical time it may well make the most of the second of restoration it’s experiencing: after some years of falling gross sales, Thomas Meyer’s firm has returned to revenue, with 313,000 euros of earnings in 2024 and a turnover of 332 million euros. The Barcelona firm may also make the most of the synergies that exist already between each corporations: Calabia himself joined Desigual as product director, and several other advertising positions additionally jumped from Pronovias to Desigual. Both corporations even share the identical communication company. Compared to those that imagine that Pronovias is “a walking corpse with no solution” and those that don’t perceive how Desigual will get concerned in an organization with this historical past, others imagine that it is a chance that needs to be taken benefit of.