Cofra Holding AG is a

privately held company A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose Stock, shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in their respective listed markets. Instead, the Private equi ...

established in 2001 in

Zug Zug (Standard German: , Alemannic German: ; ; ; ; )Named in the 16th century. is the largest List of cities in Switzerland, town and capital of the Swiss canton of Zug. Zug is renowned as a hub for some of the wealthiest individuals in the wor ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, to coordinate the global businesses of the

Brenninkmeijer family Brenninkmeijer () is a Roman Catholic Dutch, German and Swiss family of manufacturers, which own an international chain of clothing stores. Originally the family came from Tecklenburger Land (Westphalia) in Germany, selling linen in Friesland ...

. It is active in the fields of

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholes ...

ing, real estate,

asset management Asset management is a systematic approach to the governance and realization of all value for which a group or entity is responsible. It may apply both to tangible assets (physical objects such as complex process or manufacturing plants, infrastr ...

private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...

renewable energy Renewable energy (also called green energy) is energy made from renewable resource, renewable natural resources that are replenished on a human lifetime, human timescale. The most widely used renewable energy types are solar energy, wind pow ...

and

sustainable food A sustainable food system is a type of food system that provides healthy diet, healthy food to people and creates sustainable environmental, economic, and social systems that surround food. Sustainable food systems start with the development of Su ...

. Cofra is owned and managed by members of the Brenninkmeijer family. Its chairman is Martijn Brenninkmeijer, and the CEO is Boudewijn Beerkens.

Group structure

Cofra has various subsidiaries, including C&A, Redevco, Bregal Investments, Anthos Fund & Asset Management, Sunrock, Dalsem and Ontario Plants.

C&A

C&A, the fashion retail company, is the oldest business in the group. It was founded in 1841, when brothers Clemens and August Brenninkmeijer opened the first C&A store in

Sneek Sneek (; ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city southwest of Leeuwarden and the seat of the former municipality of Sneek in the province of Friesland, Netherlands. As of 2011 it is the seat of the municipality of Súdw ...

, the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. As of 2024, C&A had around 1,300 stores in 17 European countries and employed over 27,000 people. It also has a presence in Brazil (since 1976). COFRA also owned and operated the C&A brand in Mexico and China between 1999-2023 and 2007-2020 respectively. In 2020, COFRA sold the brand and operations of C&A China to Beijing Zhongke Tongrong. In 2023, the brand and operations of C&A Mexico was sold to Grupo Alfar. In 2019, C&A Modas became a listed company in Brazil, trading on the BE Stock Exchange under the ticker CEAB3.

Redevco

Redevco, a European commercial retail and residential real estate business, was founded in 1999 and is based in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, the Netherlands. Redevco's CEO is Neil Slater, who was appointed to the position in October 2023.

Bregal Investments

Bregal Investments, a private equity platform with various funds, was founded in 2002 to formalize the private investment activities of COFRA Holding AG. As of October 2024, Bregal Investments had AUM of €19 billion.

Anthos Fund & Asset Management (AFAM)

Anthos Fund & Asset Management (AFAM) was founded in 1929. It provides asset management services to the Brenninkmeijer family, their philanthropic foundations and the pension funds of various Cofra entities. AFAM's CEO is Jacco Maters, who was appointed in September 2018.

Sustainable food

In November 2021, Cofra announced an investment in Scotland-based vertical farmer ''Intelligent Growth Solutions'' as part of its

Series B A venture round is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup companies obtain investment, generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors. The availability of venture funding is among the ...

Funding round, which also included Cleveland Avenue LLC (Chicago) and DC Thomson (Dundee, Scotland) as investors. In January 2022, Cofra took over the Dutch greenhouse manufacturer Dalsem. In April 2022, Cofra Holding announced the acquisition of Ontario Plants Propagation.

Management and business practices

Cofra is a privately held company owned by a group of around 60 descendants of Clemens and August Brenninkmeijer. The group is also known as the “Sneekerkring”, a reference to the town of Sneek, where C&A was founded. Within the group of family owners, key decisions are taken on the basis of consensus rather than voting. Martijn Brenninkmeijer is the chairman of Cofra's executive board. In a 2016

Die Zeit (, ) is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles. History The first edition of was ...

interview with Maurice Brenninkmeijer, Götz Hamann and Uew Jean Heuser wrote that company shares cannot be inherited; they can only be obtained by family members who serve as Cofra executives.

References

External links

*{{Official, cofraholding.com Clothing retailers of Switzerland Financial services companies established in 2001 Retail companies established in 2001 Companies based in Zug