The merger combining Hudson Jeans and Robert Graham is in the books. Joe Jean’s Inc. announced the completion of the merger on Friday.
In September, Joe’s Jeans reached a deal to sell the Joe’s brand for an aggregated purchase price of $80 million to two buyers, Sequential Brands Group Inc. and Global Brands Group Holding Limited. The company also agreed to merge its remaining Hudson business with RG Parent LLC, the parent company of fashion brand Robert Graham.
Concurrent with the closing of the transaction, Hudson Jeans and Robert Graham will remain standalone businesses under the unified name, Differential Brands Group Inc. The two brands will serve as the initial foundation for Differential, which intends to seek further opportunities to acquire complementary premium brands.
In addition to growing its roster of brands, the company said it will focus on organically growing its owned brands through a global, omni-channel distribution strategy across premium wholesale channels, direct-to-consumer retail stores and e-commerce.
Michael Buckley, the current chief executive officer for Robert Graham CEO, will lead Differential as Chief Executive Officer. Buckley is well-versed in denim brands. He has previously had public company leadership experience at True Religion, in addition to experience at Diesel and Ben Sherman.
Buckley stated that he believes Differential is “uniquely positioned to become one of the foremost premium omni-channel brand platforms in the world.”
