Joe’s Jeans announced Wednesday it has 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.
Sequential Brands, which owns the William Rast, Jessica Simpson and Ellen Tracy brands, has agreed to purchase the Joe’s brand and related assets for $67 million. It will oversee the global marketing strategy for the brand. In tandem with the acquisition, Sequential has signed a long-term licensing agreement for all of the brand’s core categories with Global Brands Group. Under the agreement, the lifestyle product company will design, produce and distribute multiple categories including menswear and womenswear. The first range by Global Brands will launch in Spring ’16.
“We are delighted to be working with our partners at Sequential,” said Dow Famulak, Global Brands Group Holding Limited president and chief operating officer, in a press release. He added, “The combination of Global Brands’ extensive retail relationships, strong design skills and distribution capabilities and Joe’s popularity sets the stage for taking the brand to a new level.”
Additionally, Joe’s has agreed to merge the remaining Hudson business with RG Parent LLC, the parent company of fashion brand Robert Graham. By combining the two brands, the company aims to build a new, premium branded consumer platform that focuses on growing its brands through a global omnichannel strategy, including premium wholesale department store and specialty stores, direct-to-consumer retail stores, e-commerce, and licensing. RG Parent intends to seek further opportunities to acquire complementary premium brands.
Upon the closing of the Joe’s brand asset sale transactions, Joe’s Jeans will be renamed Differential Brands Group Inc. (DGB) and remain listed on NASDAQ. According to a statement, the name change signifies the transformation of the standalone businesses and the creation of a unified consumer platform.
Robert Graham CEO Michael Buckley, who has previous held leadership roles at True Religion, Diesel and Ben Sherman, has been tapped to lead DBG as chief executive officer upon the closing of the merger.
In a statement, Buckley, said, “I believe Differential is uniquely positioned to become one of the leading premium omnichannel brand platforms in the world, and I am thrilled to begin leading the company as chief executive officer after the closing of the merger.”
