Authentic Brands Group’s (ABG) proposed $220 million purchase of PVH Corp.’s Heritage Division (Izod, Van Heusen, Geoffrey Beane and Arrow) is only the latest deal shuffling ownership of well-known fashion and lifestyle brands.

Leaving Its Namesake
It’s noteworthy on many levels, including the fact that Van Heusen was once a core – literally the “VH” in PVH – of its soon-to-be former owner’s business.

The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of this year. Under its terms, PVH has taken a license for all four brands’ dress furnishings businesses in North America.

ABG takes over a broad existing licensing business for the brands, said to number about 60 agreements. They no doubt will move to expand on it.

New Licensees
For example, as part of the agreement, Centric Brands, which itself emerged from bankruptcy last fall and is a PVH licensee for Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger children’s apparel, will become an Izod licensee for men’s sportswear. United Legwear & Apparel Co., which has licenses for Puma, Hurley, Skechers and others, will replace F&T Apparel as the licensee for Van Heusen and Arrow men’s sportswear.

For much of the past year brand management agencies (Marquee Brands, Bluestar Alliance, WHP Global, ABG) have been gobbling up newly available and largely retail and fashion brands amid a downturn in apparel exacerbated  by the pandemic; U.S. apparel sales declined 19% in 2020, with merchandise piling up in warehouses and shuttered specialty stores. In recent months, sales have begun to improve as retail reopens;  Target, for example posted a 60% apparel increase in the first quarter.

For example, just within the past 18 months, ABG has purchased the Barney’s, Eddie Bauer, Brooks Brothers and Forever 21 brands – moves that according to widely published speculation are setting the stage for an initial public offering this year. Meanwhile, Marquee has bought the Sur La Table and BCBG Max Azria labels, Bluestar added Justice, and WHP Global has bought the Joseph Abboud trademarks as well as a majority stake in Toys R Us.

The deals are all part a change that has been roiling the brand management business in recent years as Iconix, Apex (formerly Cherokee) and Sequential have struggled amid the rise of new competitors and the downturn in the department store  and DTR business.

PVH – which operated as Philips Van Heusen for 44 years before taking its new name in 2011 – will now focus on its Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger brands, which accounted for 90% of its $7.1 billion in total revenue in the year ended March 31, down from $9.7 billion a year earlier.  PVH had gradually built its heritage business, which had $1.3 billion in revenue in the most recent fiscal year, in buying Izod (1995), Arrow (2000) and Geoffrey Beene (2018).  PVH first licensed Geoffrey Beene for dress shirts, having introduced them in 1982.  it having licensed the latter for dress shirts since 1982. PVH will retain the Warner’s and Olga intimate brands that were part of the division and which it purchased in 2013. It had been seeking a buyer for the heritage labels for much of this year and planned to close the brands’ 162 remaining retail stores by mid-year.