Restoration Hardware Expanding Into Apparel
Restoration Hardware, the high-end furniture and home-furnishing retail chain based in Corte Madera, Calif., is getting into the clothing business.
The company announced on Aug. 14 it has decided to reorganize its business to generate new revenue.
The organization means the leadership will be realigned. One side will remain with the luxury furniture and home-furnishings business, and the other side will be incubating and launching new lines of apparel, accessories, footwear and jewelry.
Gary Friedman, the current chairman and co-chief executive officer of Restoration Hardware, will become the founder, chairman and chief executive of Hierarchy, the apparel and accessories side of the equation, with Restoration Hardware owning a minority stake. Friedman will continue to be involved with Restoration Hardware in an exclusive advisory role, serving as creator and curator for Restoration Hardware with a focus on strategy, creative and design direction. He will remain the largest individual shareholder of Restoration Hardware and will serve as a non-director adviser to the board in his role as chairman emeritus.
Carlos Alberini, formerly co-chief executive with Friedman, will now become Restoration Hardware’s sole chief executive and lead all major functions of the business.
Alberini joined Restoration Hardware in 2010, after nearly a decade as the president and chief operating officer of Los Angeles–based Guess? J. Michael Chu, a managing partner of Catterton Partners, will become the new chairman of the board of Restoration Hardware. “The new structure provides a creative and efficient way to develop new businesses,” Chu said. Under the new structure, Restoration Hardware will maintain all existing home businesses and have the exclusive right to acquire each of the new businesses when they reach an appropriate level of maturity and profitability.
Restoration Hardware sells its goods online and at 87 retail shops and 10 outlet stores in the United States and Canada, according to its website. The company was acquired in 2008 by Catterton Partners in a $179 million buyout over a rival offer by Sears Holdings Corp. It is now jointly controlled by Catterton partners and Tower Three Partners.—D.B.
