It’s a breath of fresh air for Le Coq sportif, at least until the next Winter Games. The French brand will in fact take care of the representation outfits, with almost 60,000 pieces to produce, and will provide “a unique collection” for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, announced the French Olympic Committee (CNOSF).
Ahead of this summer’s Paris Olympics, many in the sports world were concerned, on condition of anonymity, about the company’s ability to deliver French team uniforms for the Olympics on time. But everything was finally delivered well before the start of the Olympics.
This issue, however, had greatly worried the CNOSF leaders. “We would have done without the crisis,” CNOSF president David Lappartient admitted to AFP in early July, two weeks before the start of the Olympics. “It ended quite well because in the end there was some movement in the dates, but all the race clothes were delivered on July 5th. In the end it was a real rush…” he said.
Successful but ‘anxiety-provoking’ Olympics planned
The brand with the fowl emblem was chosen in May 2020 by the organizing committee of the Olympic Games at the expense of Lacoste, to equip almost all French athletes on the podiums and in competitions and to wander around the Olympic village. This partnership was supposed to end in a few weeks, but CNOSF therefore decided to renew it for two years.
The company, which has almost 360 employees, of which over 140 in the Romilly-sur-Seine (Aube) plant, will have to equip the French delegations for the next nine international competitions, including the Winter Olympics and the Winter Paralympics in Milan-Cortina . His contract will run until the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Senegal in November 2026.
This choice may seem surprising after the tensions that preceded the Paris Olympics. The brand had accumulated numerous delays in the delivery of equipment and, weeks before the start of the competitions, some federations had expressed concern about this situation to the CNOSF.
The difficulties faced by the equipment maker led the Olympic organizing committee to grant a loan of 3 million euros to the brand’s parent company, the Swiss holding company Airesis, to enable it to meet the deadlines.
“For us it was still quite anxiety-provoking. Now we were too far ahead to turn back. We had to have the clothes. There wasn’t necessarily a plan B. The financial support of Paris 2024 was provided. It was definitely the solution,” explained David Lappartient.
State loan…
The company’s difficulties are not new. The brand almost disappeared in the 1990s, before being bought in 2005 by Swiss investment company Airesis, founded by former Adidas boss Robert Louis-Dreyfus, and relaunched by Romilly, once again becoming the equipment manufacturer of the of France in 2018.
Like other companies in the sector, it has had to deal with rising energy, transport and raw material costs in recent months. The State intervened to help him by granting him a guaranteed loan of 10 million in 2023, as part of the government plan to help businesses affected by the economic consequences of the conflict in Ukraine.
…and legal summons from the FFR
Last year Le Coq Sportif saw its turnover fall from 20 million euros to 121.4 million euros, with a loss of more than 28.25 million euros. A drop in sales which can be explained, according to the Swiss holding Airesis, the parent company, by a repositioning in shoes. Airesis recorded a loss of 36 million Swiss francs (37 million euros) in 2023.
As proof of the terrible financial situation of Le Coq sportif, the French Rugby Federation (FFR), having just ended its partnership (in favor of Adidas), recently took it to court and is asking it for 5.5 million euros in debts unpaid.
#French #Olympic #team #Equipment #manufacturer #Coq #sportif #renewed #years