NEWS
Inside the Industry
Gordon Brothers, a Boston-based global advisory, restructuring and investment firm, announced April 16 that it had sold the United Kingdom–based streetwear brand Bench to Wraith. The buyer is an affiliate of Apparel Brands Limited, which is headquartered in Manchester, U.K. The deal covered rights for all territories outside of the Americas. Terms of the deal were not disclosed in the announcement. “Gordon Brothers is extremely proud to have played its part in saving one of the world’s first streetwear brands of scale,” said Ramez Toubassy, Gordon Brothers’ president of brands. “By successfully bringing our asset-light business methodology to bear in this restructuring, we were able to deliver a healthy business for Wraith to grow well into the future.”
International Market Centers introduced IMC_di earlier this year. The stand-alone business-to-business e-commerce division offers a platform that allows buyers to conduct business in the gift, home furnishings and apparel industries. IMC_di recently announced a dozen recent hires, said Bob Maricich, IMC’s CEO. “With COVID-19 causing postponement of our March and April markets in Atlanta and High Point, N.C., we are taking aggressive steps to digitally connect buyers and sellers, wherever and whenever they need to meet and do business.” Hires include Marisa Garcia, who will serve as senior director of customer success, and Andrew Meeks, who will serve as IMC_di’s director of marketing.
H&M USA announced several initiatives to support COVID-19 relief efforts. The American division of the Swedish retailer H&M will make in-kind donations of more than $2 million in product including apparel and bedding to organizations such as the Children’s Defense Fund, Nashville Rescue Mission, GLAM4GOOD and Los Angeles’s LGBT Center. H&M USA also will partner with GIVZ, an online donor platform, to offer H&M shoppers a choice of charities to which they may donate. For every $60 spent at the digital channel hm.com/us, H&M USA will donate $10 to charities its customers can choose.
Dickies, a prominent workwear brand, and its parent company, VF Corp., will be manufacturing and delivering 50,000 isolation gowns in May to medical workers treating COVID-19 patients. Dickies will continue manufacturing the gowns over the next few months. It plans to make up to 675,000 gowns by June and 3.4 million gowns by September, said Denny Bruce, Dickies’ global brand president. “As a heritage brand that goes to work, especially when the work gets tough, we are committed to equipping these workers with the critical medical garments they need to protect themselves as they continue the fight against this pandemic,” Bruce said.
