The Catalan company Talaman, specialized in the manufacture of children’s clothing, has given a change of course to one of its best-known brands, Canada House. The company based in La Roca del Vallès will close the flagship stores to transform fourteen of them into Okaïdi stores under a franchise agreement. Of these, thirteen are located in Catalonia and one in the Balearic Islands, they explained from the French chain, owned by the Idkids group. The agreement between Talaman and Idkids is part of the French multinational’s strategy to grow in Spain, with special focus on Catalonia, where it will concentrate the bulk of its expansion with the Okaïdi brand, they reported yesterday in a statement. The firm already has thirty points of sale in Catalonia and after the alliance with Talaman it will close to fifty. In addition, the French brand will open in the rest of Spain, adding more than twenty in total.
The transition of the Canada House stores to Okaïdi will last about three months, with a retail format of 50 m2 to 100 m2, giving rise to more than 70 establishments for the children’s fashion brand in Spain and Portugal. For its part, Canada House will no longer have its own stores, according to what Modaes.es announced yesterday. The group will continue to market the brand through the multi-brand channel and online.
In the last ten years, Canada House has had three different owners. The brand filed for bankruptcy in 2012 and a few months later it was acquired by the Endurance Partners fund, which drew up a new recovery and growth plan. At the beginning of 2020 Endurance got rid of it and passed into the hands of the Catalan group Nath, owner of TCN, a brand that achieved great recognition in its day but is now in commercial decline. The passage of Canada House through Nath lasted just a few months and at the end of the same 2020 Talaman acquired the production unit in an operation whose amount has not been disclosed.
Talaman was founded in 1985 and is controlled by the Raurich family. Its main activity is the design, production and marketing of children’s and newborn fashion textiles, with brands such as Yatsi, Katuco or Tobogán. The group has always focused on multi-brands and did not have its own store network until the incorporation of Canada House.
As for the Idkids group, in addition to Okaïdi, it brings together a series of product and service brands in the child and maternity segment, such as Jacadi, Catimini, Chipie, Oxybul, Z and Lili Gaufrette, which are also present in Spain. By the end of this year they hope to exceed 80 points of sale with all the group’s brands in Spain and Portugal. Okaïdi is present in 51 countries with 890 stores and employs 3,000 people in total.
