New York & Company, an omni-channel women’s specialty retailers offering exclusive celebrity and sub-brand collections, is reinventing itself to a multibrand lifestyle platform. It aims to be the premier incubator of lifestyle brands by leveraging its expertise in celebrity, design, customer, eCommerce, operations, real estate, and inventory optimisation.
The company’s vision is to identify accretive brand and profit opportunities.New York & Company, an omni-channel women's specialty retailers offering exclusive celebrity and sub-brand collections, is reinventing itself to a multibrand lifestyle platform. It aims to be the premier incubator of lifestyle brands by leveraging its expertise in celebrity, design, customer, eCommerce, operations, real estate, and inventory optimisation.#
The company’s multibrand lifestyle platform will accelerate growth of the New York & Company brand through ongoing celebrity partnerships, including collaborations with Eva Mendes, Gabrielle Union and Kate Hudson, while also expanding the recently acquired plus-size brand, Fashion to Figure, as well as introducing several new brands, including a lingerie lifestyle brand and the Kate Hudson Collection that leverage the company’s design capabilities, digital platform, and operational expertise.
As part of the transformation, the company will be changing its name to RTW Retailwinds, reflecting the ability to grow the portfolio of lifestyle brands into new categories and markets.
Commenting on the announcement, Greg Scott, chief executive officer stated: “We are at a defining moment in our corporate reinvention, with a proven track record for developing celebrity and sub-brand collections that resonate with our consumers. New York & Company is one of the largest specialty women’s retailers, with approximately 165 million annual visits and a combined social reach of over 30 million followers across our celebrity partners and we are leveraging our expertise to accelerate sales and profitability across our multibrand lifestyle platform, expanding the core New York & Company brand while also incubating new brands that are accretive to the portfolio. Our goal is to drive sales to well over $1 billion and double digit EBITDA margins.”
“Over the past several years, we developed and implemented the necessary framework to take our company to a new level of growth,” Scott continued. “Today, over 30 per cent of our sales are generated digitally, we have optimised our retail footprint, and have the talent and infrastructure to capitalise on our strengths. In fact, with the second quarter of 2018, we reported our fourth consecutive quarter of comparable store sales growth, our highest gross margin rate achieved in the second quarter since 2005, and are on track to achieve adjusted EBITDA of $35 million to $37 million for the fiscal year, up from adjusted EBITDA of $30.5 million in fiscal year 2017.”
John Howard, co-managing partner of Irving Place Capital and member of the New York & Company board of directors stated: “I am extremely proud of the New York & Company team’s ability to transform the business to be aligned with how consumers connect with brands today. RTW Retailwinds moves forward with a strengthened operating model that leverages design capabilities, sourcing expertise, digital platform, and operational foundation that will incubate new brands with a significant digital presence and strong loyalty base and deliver long term profitability. I look forward to continuing to assist the company to achieve its goals as a board member and a shareholder.”
The company strategy is to create a multibrand platform, and unlock and amplify lifestyle, category, and customer opportunities that demonstrate market potential, competitive whitespace, and are sales and profit accretive. (SV)
Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India
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