Competition is stiff in the apparel business and longtime players are rethinking their product lines. Which is why VF of Greensboro, N.C., paid $110 million to acquire Portland-based women’s activewear brand lucy.
Competition is stiff in the apparel business and longtime players are rethinking their product lines. Which is why VF of Greensboro, N.C., paid $110 million to acquire Portland-based women’s activewear brand lucy.
After fighting its way back from its own dot-com bust, lucy built a street-side business featuring its line of figure-flattering activewear worth $57 million in sales last year.
Lucy joins hipster jeans-maker Seven for All Mankind, which VF arranged to pick up at the same time for $775 million, in a new VF “coalition” (apparently the term “division” is passé) of contemporary brands. VF’s other coaltions include outdoor (including brands such as Northface and Eastpak), sportswear (Nautilus) and jeanswear (Lee and Wrangler). VF’s acquisitions allow it to go after a higher-end consumer; contemporary is another word for someone willing to drop $200 on a pair of jeans and $150 on the perfect yoga outfit.
The lucy deal comes on the heels of the $175 million acquisition of Portland’s chi-chi kidswear brand Hanna Andersson by St. Louis-based Kellwood Company, announced in June. In both cases, the new owners are expected to keep their mitts off day-to-day operations (at least for now) and let the brands continue their expansions. Lucy has 50 retail stores and counting and Hanna has 18 with more on the drawing board.
Retail analyst Jennifer Black of Jennifer Black and Associates in Lake Oswego says competition has squeezed vendors such as Kellwood, which used to specialize in the in-store private label lines that have fallen out of favor. Both Hanna and lucy, with their upscale devotees, growing number of stores and sizable revenue, made juicy acquisition targets.
If girl-name apparel acquisitions, like celebrity deaths, happen in threes, we’ve got one more to go.
CHRISTINA WILLIAMS
| REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS | |||
| ANNOUNCED | BUYER/PARENT (HQ) | REAL ESTATE (LOCATION) / SELLER (HQ) | PRICE |
| 26-Jun | Westport Capital Partners LLC (CT) | The Harrison – Condo Conversion Mezzanine Loan (Portland) | ND |
| 27-Jun | Bill Carpenter and Charles Howard | office bldg. (Sandy) / Noble Dev. Company IV; Herbert D. McKillop | $7.7m |
| 27-Jun | HAG Holdings; EZS; Morrison St. Prtn. | Irwin Paul Building (Portland) / Irwin Leitgeb | $2.1m |
| 29-Jun | Equastone (CA) | AmberGlen Business Park (Hillsboro) / The Praedium Group (NY) | $67.92m |
| 2-Jul | ScanlanKemperBard (Portland) | 2 retail properties (CA) / Pacific Union Development | $94.75m |
| 3-Jul | Phillips Edison & Co. (MD) | Powell Villa (Portland) | ND |
| 6-Jul | CalPERS (CA) | KOIN Center (Portland) | $108m |
| 9-Jul | ATC Partners LLC (CA) | Paulson Building (Portland) / Runhill Investment Co. | $9.2m |
| 9-Jul | Charles Padot | Canyon Ridge apartment complex (Newberg) / Viking Properties | $4m |
| 9-Jul | D&S McIntyre Living Trust (CA) | Oak Leaf Manor (Portland) / Linda D. Frye Revocable Living Trust & Barry Stuffs (CA) | $2.85m |
| 11-Jul | DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners/ Credit Suisse | Hilton Garden Inn (Lake Oswego) / Sunstone Hotel Investors | $150.5m |
| 11-Jul | David McIntyre and Sally McIntyre | Oak Leaf Manor Apartments (Portland) / Linda Frye, Barry Stubbs | $2.85m |
| 12-Jul | DP Partners (NV) | 13.5 acres (Portland)/ Portland Development Commission | ND |
| 17-Jul | Guardian Management LLC (Portland) | 2 apartment bldgs. (AZ) | ND |
| 18-Jul | Gresham Funeral Chapel (Gresham) | office bldg. (Gresham)/ Parkside Chapel | $1.34m |
| 23-Jul | SHLP Block 46 LLC (Denver)/ Simpson Housing LLP | Block 46 (Portland)/ Williams and Dame Development | ND |
| 25-Jul | The Bennett Family Trust (Bend) | industrial bldg. (Portland)/ Weston William McGaa Irr. Trust | $2m |
| 25-Jul | The Salvation Army (Portland) | Monterey Plaza office bldg. (Portland) | $7.4m |
| 26-Jul | JPMorgan Asset Management | Brewery Blocks (Portland)/ Gerding Edlen Development | $292m |
| MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS | ||||
| ANNOUNCED | EXP. CLOSE | BUYER/PARENT (HQ) | SELLER (HQ) / PARENT | PRICE (TERMS) |
| 29-Jun | Q1 ’08 | Nautilus (Vancouver, WA) | Land America Health and Fitness (China) | $72m |
| 2-Jul | ND | Standard Retirement Services (Portland)/ StanCorp Financial Group Inc. | MasterPlan Advisors (Portland)/ DPA | ND |
| 2-Jul | Q3 ’07 | The Papé Group (Eugene) | Central California Kenworth (CA) | ND |
| 3-Jul | Q3 ’07 | Northwest Pipe Company (Portland) | Continental Pipe Manufacturing Co. (UT) | ND (cash) |
| 3-Jul | Q3 ’07 | Domestica LLC (Portland) | Sister Suds Cleaning Co. (Portland) | ND |
| 5-Jul | Q3 ’07 | Electro Scientific Industries (Portland) | New Wave Research (CA) | $36m |
| 9-Jul | Q3 ’07 | Redwood Empire division (CA)/ Pacific States Industries, Inc. | plywood mill (Springfield)/ Weyerhaeuser Co. | ND |
| 12-Jul | Q3 ’07 | Trelleborg Sealing Solutions (Sweden)/ Trelleborg | AFM (Portland) | ND |
| 13-Jul | Q3 ’07 | Market Strategies (MI) | Doxus (Portland) | ND |
| 20-Jul | Q3 ’07 | Basic American Foods (CA) | Harry’s Fresh Foods (Portland) | ND |
| 24-Jul | Q4 ’07 | New Vision Television (CA) | KOIN6 (Portland)/ Montecito Broadcast Grp. | ND |
| 26-Jul | Q3 ’07 | VF Corp. (NC) | Lucy Activewear (Portland) | $110m |
| CAPITAL RAISING | ||||
| ANNOUNCED | COMPANY (HQ) / LEADERSHIP | INVESTOR | PRICE (TERMS) | |
| 10-Jul | Oregon Health & Science University (Portland) | Harold & Arlene Schnitzer Care Foundation | $5.5m (donation) | |
| 17-Jul | Pacific Star Comm. (Portland)/ Robert Frisbee, CEO | Chart Venture Partners; Steelpoint Capital Prt. | $12.3m (series D) | |
| 23-Jul | Teseda Corporation (Portland)/ Armagan Akar, CEO | INTER ACTION | $1.2m | |
List researched by Mark Druskoff ND=Not disclosed
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