Andy Dunn aims to help Bonobos become a global brand.
That’s the goal of Yehuda Shmidman, chairman and chief executive officer of WHP Global, which made a deal in April to purchase the menswear brand from Walmart for $75 million. WHP partnered with Express Inc., in which it owns a 60 percent interest, on the acquisition.
On Friday morning, WHP said it was bringing back Dunn, who cofounded Bonobos in 2007, as an adviser.
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Dunn, who had served as chief executive officer of Bonobos for a decade, will work closely with Tim Baxter, CEO of Express; John Hutchison, Bonobos president, and the rest of the Bonobos team to grow the brand both in the U.S. and internationally.
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“Andy Dunn is the OG of [direct-to-consumer],” Shmidman said. “When he started Bonobos, it was the original digitally native brand. He pioneered the whole business model.”
Dunn was also instrumental in creating the Guideshops, Bonobos’ physical retail concept where consumers can touch, feel and try on product, order it and have it shipped to them. There are 60 Guideshops around the U.S. They will be operated by Express which will also oversee the online business, Shmidman said. The Bonobos team will continue to be responsible for design, product development and sourcing.
He added that the plan is not to change the structure of the $200 million Bonobos business, but to “lean into” its strengths, which center around the 240-plus sizes it offers in pants as well as complementary products. And Dunn will be integral to that.
“He built Bonobos, sold it and we were able to buy it and carry the torch into the future,” Shmidman said.
In addition to introducing an older, higher-income consumer to the Express family, Shmidman sees opportunity to bring Bonobos to other regions around the world. Latin America, Asia and the Middle East are the first targets on his list, he said. “We’ve only owned it for a couple of weeks, but that’s where we see interest even in these early days.”
He specifically mentioned Dubai, Hong Kong and Mexico City as potential places for expansion.
“International is what we do,” he said, pointing to the similar game plan that was put in place for WHP’s other brands, including Anne Klein and Toys R Us.
“Getting back into the mix at Bonobos is a magical, full-circle moment,” Dunn said. “Yehuda, Tim and the teams at WHP Global and Express are wonderful people and will be exceptional brand stewards. In partnership with John and the strong leadership team at Bonobos, we’re going to do great things on behalf of current and future Bonobos customers.”
“As the cofounder of Bonobos and a retail innovator, Andy has a unique perspective that we are fortunate to have access to as we work with WHP Global to begin the next chapter of growth for Bonobos,” said Baxter.
Bonobos was a standout among a wave of digital natives when it launched, but under Walmart, which owned it for six years, it had a lower profile. The purchase was a part of the retailer’s quest to add a number of direct-to-consumer brands to compete with Amazon, but it has since moved away from that strategy, selling most of the brands including Moosejaw. Walmart had paid $310 million for Bonobos in 2017.
Shmidman said that although Bonobos may not have gotten a lot of attention during its time under the Walmart umbrella, the business has still been growing steadily since the pandemic. “The customer is loyal,” he said. Bonobos had a compounded annual growth rate of 30 percent between 2020 and 2022 and a gross margin rate of approximately 60 percent.
“We’ll just give it a new infusion of momentum,” he said.
WHP also owns Joseph Abboud, Joe’s Jeans, Isaac Mizrahi and others, and its brands collectively have sales that are approaching $7 billion globally. The Bonobos deal was the first joint acquisition between WHP and Express.