California Apparel News

Apparel Ventures Inc., a nearly 30-year-old Los Angeles swimwear company, has acquired the assets of Waterfront Design Group LLC, a smaller and younger Los Angeles swimwear company that has the license to make Rampage swimwear. The acquisition price was not announced.

The deal will allow Apparel Ventures, a $90 million company whose swimwear labels are strong in the misses market, to re-enter the juniors market. “This acquisition complements AVI’s strength in the contemporary and designer swimwear market and reasserts our position in the junior market,” said Marvin Goldman, founder and chairman of Apparel Ventures, in a statement.

Waterfront Design Group will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Apparel Ventures, which employs 850 people, and will change its name to Blue Water Design Group Co. Inc. Steven Goldman, president of Waterfront, will become the executive vice president and manager of Blue Water Design. And Howie Greller, managing director of Waterfront, will become the president of Blue Water. Goldman said his company, which employs about 35 to 40 people, will remain for now in its 30,000- square-foot facility, located at 122 E. Washington Blvd. in downtown Los Angeles.

“With the resources of Apparel Ventures, we can do the things we always dreamed of, which is to produce and deliver more efficiently and to expand our development in the contemporary market. And that takes capital resources,” Goldman said.

Waterfront is a $20 million company started in August 2001 by Goldman and Greller. Previously, Goldman had been the head of Monarch Knit and Sportswear, a Los Angeles company started in 1935 by his grandfather, Harry Goldman.

When sportswear manufacturing headed to China and other Asian countries, Steven Goldman said he decided to change the company’s direction to swimwear and change its name.

But the company fell on financial difficulties. Apparel Ventures purchased Waterfront’s assets from the CIT Group Inc., a factoring company. Apparel Ventures did not acquire Waterfront’s debt, said Bill Singletary, Apparel Ventures’ chief financial officer.

For Apparel Ventures, this is an opportunity to boost its stable of labels. Currently, it produces branded or licensed women’s swimwear under the names Playa by La Blanca, La Blanca by Rod Beattie, Sessa, Ralph Lauren, Anne Klein and Tommy Bahama.

Waterfront not only has the Rampage license but also produces swimwear under the names W Swim, a contemporary label; By the Beach, a moderate misses brand; Waterfront Surf, a popular-priced juniors label; and Ocean View.

Waterfront’s swimwear is made by contractors in Los Angeles and in Mexico. Apparel Ventures has two manufacturing facilities in Mexico that employ 500 people. —Deborah Belgum