womens clothing

TowerBrook Capital Partners has entered into an agreement to purchase J.Jill, a multi-channel fashion retailer of women’s apparel, accessories and footwear. TowerBrook will acquire J.Jill from Arcapita and Golden Gate Capital which acquired the company in July 2009 from Talbots.

J. Jill is a multi-channel retailer of woman’s apparel. The company sells its merchandise through 205 stores across the United States, through its website, and through 26 published catalogs per year. Originally founded in 1959, J. Jill is headquartered outside of Boston in Quincy, MA (www.jjill.com).

Post-closing, Paula Bennett will remain in her current role as President and Chief Executive Officer of J.Jill.  “The sale of J.Jill reflects our industry leading success, having just completed our best sales year in history and 12 quarters of consecutive growth. We are delighted to partner with TowerBrook. Their investment in J.Jill provides support for future development and the ability to maximize our potential as a brand and business. We have a shared vision to capitalize on our understanding of our customer and the strength of our omni-channel business. We look forward to the opportunities ahead for J.Jill to continue to delight, inspire and guide our customers,” said Ms. Bennett.

TowerBrook has experience in the consumer retail and luxury space and has made control-oriented investments in companies such as Jimmy Choo, True Religion, Kaporal and Phase Eight.  More generally, the firm makes control investments in large and middle market companies across and array of industries.  TowerBrook has offices in New York, London, and San Francisco (www.towerbrook.com).

Fully committed financing will be provided by Jefferies and Macquarie Group. Morgan Stanley and Houlihan Lokey acted as financial advisors to J.Jill and Macquarie Group acted as financial advisor to TowerBrook Capital Partners. The acquisition of J.Jill by TowerBrook is expected to close in the second quarter of 2015.

© 2015 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 3-31-15

Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) has acquired a 50% stake in Bailey44, a contemporary women’s apparel brand.

Bailey44’s products are sold through specialty stores across the U.S and Europe, as well as department stores and online stores globally.  The company was founded in 2006 and is based in Los Angeles (www.bailey44.com).

With this investment, Norwest Venture Partners’ Sonya Brown and Rob Arditi have joined Bailey44’s board of directors.

“In Norwest Venture Partners we have found a partner that will work with us in realizing our expansion plans into new and exciting areas. Sonya Brown and Rob Arditi worked closely with Bailey44’s senior management team to ensure that the company’s culture, vision and path remained essentially unchanged. We are thrilled to leverage Norwest’s consumer experience and strategic expertise in e-commerce, international expansion and marketing to help take our brand to the next level,” said Ruthy Grode, co-founder and CEO of Bailey44.

Demonstrating substantial year after year double digit growth, Bailey44 has been become a major player in the contemporary women’s apparel market. Nordstrom’s, Saks Fifth Ave, Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdales carry the Bailey44 brand, in addition to Intermix, E Street Denim and several hundred active retailers throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Bailey44 sales have also been boosted by online retailers such as Revolve Clothing and Piperlime. The company’s plans for growth include strengthening brand awareness, international growth, category expansion and increasing its online presence. Management will continue to operate the business from Bailey44’s Los Angeles headquarters.

“Bailey44 is a leading women’s contemporary premium apparel brand that is already highly profitable and well positioned for continued growth. The management team, which worked together for nearly 10 years, has an extraordinary track record in manufacturing and launching well designed clothing lines. We’re thrilled that Bailey44 has chosen NVP as its partner, and we look forward to working closely with the team to continue building a major force in the women’s contemporary apparel category,” said Sonya Brown, general partner at Norwest Venture Partners.

Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) is a multi-stage investment firm that has partnered with entrepreneurs to build businesses for more than 50 years. The firm manages over $3.7 billion in capital and has funded more than 500 companies since inception.  NVP makes early to late-stage venture capital and growth equity investments across a range of sectors including: technology, information services, business services, financial services, consumer products/services and healthcare.  The firm headquartered in Palo Alto, CA and has subsidiaries in Mumbai and Bengaluru, India and Herzelia, Israel.  (www.nvp.com).

“As a bootstrapped and well-established company, Bailey44 did not need an investment partner. Therefore, we feel very fortunate that the company has selected Norwest as its partner for the next stage of Bailey44’s growth,” said Rob Arditi, vice president at NVP.

© 2013 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 2-11-13