Turnaround specialist Thierry Miremont- who took over as CEO of Just Over The Top (JOTT) this summer– has embarked on an emergency rescue mission. FashionNetwork.com has learned that the brand’s shareholders dug deep in the first half of 2025 in a bid to revive the company.

Indeed, L Catterton Europe, which acquired a majority stake in the Marseille-based down jacket brand via a leveraged buyout (LBO) in early 2021, and the other shareholders have approved a 99-million-euro injection to recapitalise the company. This unprecedented decision underscores the severity of the difficulties faced by the business, which nevertheless continued to open boutiques in France in 2024.

The brand, founded in 2010 by Mathieu and Nicolas Gourdikian, who retain a minority stake, has faced a succession of crises that now threaten its very existence. The challenge is no longer simply to finance growth, but to ensure operational survival.

According to documents reviewed by FashionNetwork.com, JOTT’s commercial engine has stalled, leaving the brand with large volumes of stock to clear, eroding its brand image despite significant work on its stylistic proposition. For several seasons, substantial volumes of its down jackets have been offered at knock-down prices, and even sold off on markets.

After a sharp decline in activity at its logistics and distribution company JOTT Opérations in 2023, revenue collapsed again last year by more than 28% to 54.7 million euros. The company attributes this dramatic fall directly to the bankruptcy of its logistics provider at the beginning of 2024- an event that necessitated the urgent relocation of stock and a complex recovery of operations.

The cost of this logistical setback contributed to a deficit of 30 million euros at JOTT Opérations and an operating loss of more than 4 million euros for JOTT France, the company’s own distribution entity. The activities of entities in other markets are also suffering, implying that it remains to be proven that the brand concept can be exported profitably.

Faced with these accumulated losses, the operational companies’ equity turned negative, weakening the company’s structure just as significant instalments were falling due. In 2024, shareholder support helped address this situation, with 18 million euros injected in two tranches. However, this appears to have merely contained the damage, without preventing the massive depreciation of the group’s assets.

Thus, in 2025, the rescue plan faced an impossible equation: operating losses had made the enormous debt contracted at the time of the LBO unsustainable. Specifically, this debt- concentrated in a holding company called Jaguar Bidco- amounts to nearly 156 million euros. Negotiations with creditors, in particular Idinvest Partners and Eurazeo, were, understandably, extremely tight. The shareholder recapitalisation, approved last April, is clearly a vital step forward for the future of JOTT.

A tight agreement with creditors

This 99 million euro injection is not merely about plugging an accounting gap; it is an essential condition demanded by the company’s bondholders to give the business breathing space. In exchange for this major financial effort, creditors have agreed to pause certain financial obligations through a mechanism known as a waiver. However, this breathing space is not a blank cheque. In return for their patience, the creditors attached particularly strict covenants to the agreement. These contractual commitments oblige the company’s management to meet performance ratios quarter after quarter. For the brand, this means advancing under close scrutiny: any failure to meet the trajectory could break the waiver agreement and give creditors the right to demand immediate repayment of their claims, or even to take control of the equity.

If management keeps its commitments, this translates into crucial relief for cash flow: the suspension of interest payments on the debt until the end of 2027, turning immediate cash pressure into future debt. This should enable JOTT to concentrate its resources on the only thing that matters now: selling products.

This reprieve, coupled with agreements with banking partners, gives management, now led by Thierry Miremont, a two-year window to reinvent JOTT’s business model. According to the available information, the strategic plan includes an in-depth transformation of retail.

This transformation involves a painful but necessary rationalisation: the company has already begun closing shops deemed unprofitable, notably in Paris and Bordeaux and across various European markets. At the same time, JOTT is betting on technological modernisation to regain efficiency, accelerating the roll-out of performance initiatives such as an automatic replenishment tool, according to the company’s management. As the brand seeks to increase its share of full-price products, investment appears key: it must ensure that stock- already subject to significant write-downs- is managed as tightly as possible to reduce product obsolescence and maximise margins. One piece of good news? Despite the difficulties, the tax audits carried out in 2024 on Jaguar Topco, the ultimate parent company, and JOTT France concluded without any reassessments in 2025.

The challenge, however, is considerable. The company will have to return rapidly to profitability- probably requiring an annual improvement of several tens of millions of euros- in order to make up the deficit. It will also have to prove to its partners the group’s future viability. Without this operational performance, the brand will not be able to cope with the resumption of debt repayments in 2028.

Management did not wish to answer our questions about the company’s situation. Nevertheless, its teams are hard at work optimising store performance (with a network that has already shrunk to 140 points of sale), strengthening the desirability of the collections and attracting new retailers, notably by preparing to exhibit at the Pitti Uomo trade fair in Florence and Who’s Next in Paris. But despite this operational proactivity, the challenge remains major: to turn the brand around by making it more agile and efficient within a compressed timeframe and against an unfavourable backdrop in both the French and international markets.