French down jacket brand JOTT is looking for a buyer

The receivers, senior management and owners of Marseilles-based down jacket specialist Just Over the Top (JOTT) are actively looking for a buyer for the brand. Last December, following months of financial and operational difficulties, JOTT’s two companies, JOTT Opération, with 97 employees and a revenue of €55 million in 2024, and JOTT France, with 183 employees and a revenue of €24 million in 2024, were placed in receivership.

In January 2021, the L Catterton Europe investment fund bought a majority stake in JOTT via a leveraged buyout, leaving founding family Gourdikian with a minority stake. However, a heavy debt burden combined with operating losses, despite various senior management changes, have made the company’s financial situation untenable. After two successive injections of capital, the owners, being also creditors of the company, carried out a debt-to-equity swap in spring 2025, in an attempt to reduce indebtedness and ease the financial burden.

Placing the company in receivership suggested that L Catterton Europe, which is linked to the LVMH group and the Arnault family’s investment firms, was no longer keen to invest in JOTT. According to a source close to the matter, all of JOTT’s shareholders intend to sell their stakes through the receivership procedure. The future buyer will have to relaunch the company once its debts will have been reimbursed, a bittersweet outcome for other JOTT creditors (like Eurazeo, which acquired one of the company’s creditors, Idinvest Partners, in 2020) which had financed the buyout via the Jaguar Bidco holding company.

It remains to be seen which type of players, whether investors or producers, will be interested in JOTT’s tangible and intangible assets. Interested parties have until January 30 to file their bids, which will be closely watched by the company’s over 200 employees, as well as its franchisees. The Marseilles trade court is set to rule on the bids by the end of March.