MANUFACTURING
New CFO Named to Hudson Jeans Parent Company
Differential Brands Group has named Bob Ross its new chief financial officer, effective Jan. 30.
He replaces Hamish Sandhu, who in 2007 started with Joe’s Jeans, which did a reverse merger in 2015 and became Differential Brands Group. The Los Angeles company’s labels are premium-jeans brand Hudson, Robert Graham and SWIMS, a Scandinavian lifestyle brand known for its range of water-resistant footwear, apparel and accessories.
Ross has a long history with the retail and apparel industries. Most recently, he was the chief financial officer of Los Angeles–based Nasty Gal Inc., an online apparel site that filed for bankruptcy protection last November. Prior to that, he was chief financial officer of Ideeli Inc., a members-only online shopping site.
For more than 12 years, Ross held several financial and operational executive roles at retail chain Urban Outfitters. He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Drexel University in Philadelphia.
“Bob has vast global experience and an excellent track record growing lifestyle brands and retail concepts through multiple channels,” said Michael Buckley, Differential Brands’ chief executive officer.
Before becoming Differential Brands Group, the apparel venture operated as Joe’s Jeans, which hit a financial hurdle in 2013 when it borrowed $90 million to buy Hudson for $97.6 million and then defaulted on its loans.
The company was close to declaring bankruptcy in 2015 but ended up selling its flagship brand, Joe’s Jeans, to Sequential Brands Group and Global Brands Group Holding for $80 million. Funds from the sale were used to retire Joe’s Jeans’ debt.
The Hudson label remained behind and the company was merged with the high-end label Robert Graham and then combined under the Differential Brands Group corporate name, which is publicly traded on the NASDAQ.
For the first nine months of 2016, Differential Brands had a net loss of $12.9 million on $107.25 million in revenues.
