
The American plus size women’s and men’s apparel firm FullBeauty Brands is set to buy the plus-size label Catherines from Ascena Retail Group for US $ 40.8 million.
The New York-based fashion brand emerged as the winner at the recently concluded Ascena’s bankruptcy auction.
The bid made by FullBeauty Brands was more than double of what was offered by City Chic Collective Limited (US $ 16 million).
The Sydney-based City Chic, as per the court documents, is now the backup bidder with a US $ 39.9 million offer.
Meanwhile, Ascena has notified the US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Richmond that it will be permanently shutting down 23 more stores run by its Justice tween apparel label.
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Despite the fact that Catherines has its own loyal followers, it’s always been tough game for the plus size label when compared to Ascena’s other more popular brand Lane Bryant.
More on this, Jane Hali, CEO, Jane Hali & Associates, says that unless plus size brands aren’t spot on trends, they can lose their customers to some other brand. And in today’s tough times of pandemic and online boom, the task has become more tedious.
The more than a century old FullBeauty Brands was itself bought by Apax Partners in 2015 and holds reputed labels like Woman Within, Roaman’s, fullbeauty.com, amongst others.