Ben Sherman on the Block
British label Ben Sherman will not be moving to California any time soon—at least not as a division of Quiksilver.
The Huntington Beach, Calif.–based surf giant was one of several companies cited as a suitor for the mod clothier in the past few months. But Quiksilver Chief Executive Officer Bob McKnight recently confirmed that his company was no longer in the running.
“We looked at their book,” McKnight said, “but they’ll probably go with a bigger company.”
Liz Claiborne has also frequently been named as a Ben Sherman suitor, but representatives confirmed they were no longer in the market for the brand.
Tommy Hilfiger and Bob Brannan, former chairman of Ben Sherman, were named as well among those interested in the brand.
What’s clear is that whoever purchases the firm is buying a company on a winning streak.
The 40-year-old brand, a favorite of 1960s English rock groups including The Who and The Kinks, has been experiencing a new popularity with young Hollywood stars such as Ashton Kutcher and Elijah Wood.
Representatives from 3i, a European venture capital group that is the majority stakeholder in the highly successful men’s apparel maker, said they may name a new buyer in the next few weeks.
The brand, headquartered in London, is sold throughout the world, hosts American showrooms in New York and Los Angeles, and is prominently featured in better men’s boutiques as well as in Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom.
Introduced to the United States in 1997 by fashion industry veteran Vince Gonzales, the brand initially had a tough time gaining a foothold in this country.
“It was stigmatized as being a soccer-hooligan, beer-drinking-lad brand in the U.K.,” said Gonzales, who was Sherman’s first American employee and worked as vice president of sales and marketing. “When I moved it here, it moved to a higher level of retailer, but I had a tough time convincing them that Ben Sherman was a cool brand. The best thing I had going for me was that no one knew who the brand was in the United States.”
Worldwide sales of the brand grew 8.2 percent, to 90.1 million British pounds, in mid-2003, the equivalent of about $145 million. —Andrew Asch and Claudia Figueroa
