According to a Wall Street Journal report today, the move comes following a family feud that is set to end an 80-year French history of the iconic label. Lacoste still knits a lot of its own products in France including circular knitted fabrics from a plant of 50 or so machines in Troyes, the well known French knitting town.

The company also runs a small plant of Shima Seiki SWG-X Wholegarment machines which it invested in relatively recently to produce high quality fine gauge crocodile adorned knitwear.

Chairwoman Sophie Lacoste Dournel and a group of family shareholders are said to have announced on Wednesday with great sadness, that they plan to sell their stake in Lacoste to Groupe Maus Frères SA of Switzerland..

According to the report, the move is the latest episode in a rift between two generations of Lacoste's founding family, after Ms. Lacoste Dournel was voted head of the privately owned apparel company in September, effectively ousting her father Michel Lacoste from the position he had held since 2005.

The row is said to have led Mr. Lacoste to publicly criticize his daughter, who has served on the Lacoste board for about seven years.

Citing an unsustainable situation via the French press, Mr. Lacoste and other family shareholders agreed last month to sell their 30.3% stake in the firm to Maus, which already owned 35% of the apparel company through its licensing business, the report said.

The proposed deal, The Wall Street Journal said,  valued Lacoste at between €1 billion and €1.25 billion, or about $1.28 billion and $1.6 billion, and gave Ms. Lacoste Dournel and her group the option of either buying out the entire company at the highest price offered by the Swiss firm, or selling their stake under the same terms as her father's group.

Source: Wall Street Journal