NEW YORK — With the financial backing of Harvé Benard, the former GM Design Group is seeking to reinvigorate the GarfieldMarks brand.
The firm, which holds the trademarks for the GarfieldMarks, Womyn and iAlex-Alex Garfield labels, has been sold to Harvé Benard Ltd. from GMAC Commercial Finance for an undisclosed sum.
In business since 1993, GM Design Group, a name that will change under the Harvé Benard umbrella of brands, has gone through ups and downs. In its heyday in the mid-Nineties, the brand generated $60 million in wholesale volume and was on sale at Nordstrom, Belk and Parisian department stores, as well as 1,100 small specialty stores. Co-founder Alex Garfield and his partner, Bernie Marks, sold the company to Pegasus Capital Advisors in 2000. Shortly after the deal closed, Garfield and Marks left the firm still holding a 50 percent stake in it.
“They [Pegasus Capital] took the reins and began running the company like a financial institution, not so much as an apparel company,” Garfield said. “Under Pegasus we became something different, profit diminished, culture changed, we knew we had to find a new partner.”
Harvé Benard is a $100 million company, producing women’s better sportswear, outerwear, suits and dresses under the Harvé Benard label. This deal closed late Friday and was handled by Andrew Jassin, managing director of the Jassin O’Rourke Group, a consulting firm here. It marks Harvé Benard’s entry into the bridge sportswear arena and is its second acquisition in three months. In January, Harvé Benard bought a majority stake in New Frontier, a women’s casual better sportswear brand catering to about 600 specialty stores nationwide.
Garfield said that he returned to GM Design Group in August 2004 when Jones Texas Inc. acquired it. Jones’ chairman and chief executive officer, Edward M. Jones 3rd, left the company in September, and the GM Design Group became GMAC Commercial Finance. Garfield began searching for another partner. “Over the past two years, business has slipped,” he said.
After meeting with several other firms, Garfield chose Harvé Benard. “There are people working here who have been here for 20 years, and that’s great to see,” Garfield said. “I know that these people are like we are, and our culture is already returning to what it once was.”
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His offices already have been relocated within Harvé Benard’s design studio and showroom here, while maintaining separate design and sales teams. The brands also share a 340,000-square-foot distribution facility in Clifton, N.J. Garfield remains with the company as director, with design and sales responsibilities.
“We want to keep design and sales separate so that we can keep GarfieldMarks as pure as it is today,” said Bernard Holtzman, co-owner of Harvé Benard Ltd. “They already have a very strong team with wonderful design talent, and we think we can make this brand even more stellar.”
The firm will continue with the three bridge labels: GarfieldMarks, a career-based line; Womyn, a pants resource, and iAlex, a higher-priced career line using new innovative fabrics. Garfield said that part of the reason for strong sales has been the “vanity sizing approach,” which allows a size 14 woman to fit into a size 12 garment. The Womyn line carries the same fit as GarfieldMarks, but Garfield said he has already begun to revamp the line, to make it younger and more contemporary looking, but with the same misses’ fit.
Garfield said that with Harvé Benard as a parent, the company can now perform as it was, with the ability to maintain fabrics and redevelop lost business.
“The staff has been shell-shocked,” Garfield said. “There have been so many changes in our corporate culture. But when I walked in here today and saw my staff smiling, I knew this was the right decision. We have only been here for a few hours, but we are already back on our feet.”