The Authentic Brands Group LLC (ABG) has made a final agreement with Levi Strauss & Co. (LS & Co.) to take over Dockers.
The American fashion and media group ABG secures the hoses specialists for a transaction value of $ 311 million. The deal reflects the strategic efforts from the American clothing provider Levi Strauss to concentrate on the direct-to-consumer business.
The transaction, which is subject to the usual adjustments and final conditions, has the potential to achieve a value of up to $ 391 million in the future, based on the performance of Dockers within the authentic portfolio. Levi Strauss announced that the company intends to return around $ 100 million of the net cash profit from the transaction through stock returns to the shareholders: inside. It is expected that the company will complete the deal around July 31, 2025 for intellectual property and business activities of Dockers in the USA and Canada. The remaining activities of the brand should follow by January 31, 2026.
Michelle Gass, CEO of Levi Strauss, said in a statement that the company is “confident that we have maximized the value of the business through this agreement and that Authentic is the right organization to initiate the next chapter of growth for the Dockers brand”.
Levi Strauss announced a possible separation of Dockers for the first time last October with the announcement of the results for the third quarter of the 2023/24 financial year.
Levi’s focuses on the core brand while authentic is striving for growth
For the US Denim group, the sale of Docker’s space will create his core brand Levi’s further developing a ‘denim lifestyle’ brand and expanding his brand Beyond Yoga to promote sustainable growth over categories, channels and regions.
While Levi Strauss largely outproved strong financial results for the last quarters, the first quarter of the current financial year recorded a sales increase of three percent to $ 1.5 billion, the outlook for 2025 has worried the investor: inside.
LS & CO predicts for the year. A decrease in sales of one to two percent and an adjusted diluted profit per share between $ 1.20 and $ 1.25, which is below the estimates of LSEG of 3.7 percent growth and $ 1.37 of adjusted diluted profit per share.
Nevertheless, Gass continued to be optimistic about the “stronger focus on Levi’s core brand”, which in her statement shows “works” and “broadly created strength in women’s and men’s fashion, DTC and wholesale”.
Meanwhile, Authentic quickly expands its portfolio. Abg boss Jamie Salter explained that Dockers was a “natural addition to the authentic model”. “It is a brand with deep roots, high level of awareness and a solid basis in the license business – all things we are looking for in the acquisition of new brands. Dockers played a key role in the design of casual workwear, as we know it today, and we see a considerable potential to build on this legacy and to expand the brand in a variety of categories.”
Authentic, the parent company of Reebok, Lucky Brand and Brooks Brothers, usually works via a third party license model and store sales and other business areas to global partners to expand brands internationally.
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