Liz Claiborne Inc. has agreed to sell four of its moderately priced brands to the U.S. arm of Hong Kong-based sourcing and trading company Li & Fung Ltd., according to a Reuters report.
The sale, expected to close in the fourth quarter, includes the trademarks and inventory of the Emma James, Intuitions, JH Collectibles and Tapemeasure brands—which collectively yield about $150 million in annual sales.
The deal would not involve cash. Li & Fung will be acquiring $30 million in inventory and assets, Bruce Rockowitz, president of the firm’s trading arm, said.
“Each one of these brands will go to a specific retailer,” Rockowitz told Reuters. “They will be repositioned in the market as proprietary brands—it will be larger and narrowed to one retailer, like Martha Stewart to Kmart.”
Liz Claiborne, which owns more than three dozen brands, put 16 of them up for sale in July as part of an overhaul by new CEO William McComb to shift the company’s focus from wholesale to retail by expanding a few high-growth brands and shedding many others, the report said
Posts
