Content area
Full text
Hong Kong partner buys' Esprit brand,
will relaunch U.S. stores
Esprit is set to take on America-- again. Only this time the folks back in Hong Kong and Germany are calling the shots. The 32-year-old, San Francisco-based Esprit de Corp., a junior brand icon in the early '80s, has sold its trademark rights in the United States to its partner in Hong Kong, Esprit Holdings Ltd., for $150 million. The publicly traded firm already controls some 3 million sq. ft. of retail space in more than 40 countries around the globe, operating 500 company-owned stores and 2,000 franchised shops. With the transaction, Esprit Holdings now has full ownership of the Esprit brand worldwide.
"We have unified the brand, which will make it stronger going forward," says Heinz Krogner, executive director and CEO of Esprit Europe AG, Dusseldorf, Germany. Krogner is also heading up the company's American operation.
The deal effectively closes the books on what, for a time, was one of the most innovative companies in apparel retailing. Esprit de Corp. was founded in 1970 by Doug and Susie Tompkins, who infused it with a strong California sensibility and liberal social conscience. The company's wholesale business grew rapidly throughout the late '70s and into the next decade. International partners helped turn it into a global brand.
Esprit never let success get in the way of its less-than-conventional attitude. From its colorful and quirky direct-mail catalogs-a far cry from the stodgy catalog designs of the times-to its early push of the in-store shop concept in America to its own eco-minded, high-concept freestanding stores, the company was often ahead of the times. Its long-running "Real People" advertising campaign broke new ground by using employees and customers as models. The Tompkins's early public stance on AIDS drew praise and outrage. The company even took on overconsumption, taking out an ad with a buy-- only-what-you-need message.
Esprit's downward slide coincided with the Tompkins's marital problems. After several troubled years, the two went their separate ways in 1990. But the damage had been done. The company lost focus, the clothes lost cachet with...