Brenninkmeijer family

Today, the family owns the Cofra Holding AG, based in Switzerland which in turn controls the C&A fashion business, a private equity company, a real estate fund and two banks.

[1] This small town in the north of the Netherlands became the location of their first shop in 1860; selling linen and cotton fabrics, sheets, bedding but also complete wedding suites.

In 1881 a branch was opened in Leeuwarden, and in 1893 and 1896 in Amsterdam;[3] the possibility to buy on credit was abolished and the company started to sell menswear.

A carefully designed rulebook ‘Unitas’ ensured that Brenninkmeyer sons and daughters enter the business in leadership positions at an early age, guaranteeing that the company was fully controlled by the family.

[4] Bernard Joseph Brenninkmeijer (Mettingen 1871 – Rome 1945), the youngest son of Clemens, is considered to be the father of the C&A formula.

[2] During WWII the company profited from (expropriated) Jewish real estate and Ostarbeiter; after the war from the economic boom.

[citation needed] For a period of time Eastern Mountain Sports, Steinbach, Ohrbach's, Maurices, Miller's Outpost and others were owned through the American Retail Group.

[15] In 2015, Bregal Partners, an arm of Cofra Holding, began investing in the fishing industry of the United States.

[16] The firm owns stake in Seattle-based American Seafoods[17] and Blue Harvest Fisheries in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

[19] In 2017, Alain Caparros succeeded Philippe Brenninkmeijer as CEO of C&A Europe; he was the first non-family member at the helm of the company.

In 2019 the CEO Post for C&A Europe was held by Edward Brenninkmeijer; in 2021 by Giny Boer, the first woman at the top.

In addition to textile retailer C&A, the Brenninkmeijers own and control several companies in the private equity, real estate and financial services industries.

[23] Albert Brenninkmeijer (born 1974), married Princess Carolina of Bourbon-Parma, a cousin of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, on 21 April 2012 in Wijk bij Duurstede.

[25] Two family members have entered the entertainment industry, producer Stephan Brenninkmeijer and actor Philippe Brenninkmeyer.