Dive Brief:
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Go Global Retail, a brand investment platform, on Oct. 1 acquired maternity brand Hatch Collection for an undisclosed amount, according to a company press release.
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Hatch will be operated by Janie and Jack, the upscale children’s apparel brand that Go Global acquired from Gap Inc. in 2021. Janie and Jack runs about 120 retail stores across the U.S. and Hatch runs two.
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A role for Hatch founder Ariane Goldman, if any, is still being figured out, executives said. Janie and Jack will continue to be based in San Francisco, while Hatch will remain in New York, per the release.
Dive Insight:
Janie and Jack and Hatch aim to work in concert, not just as a destination for apparel for pregnancy and throughout childhood but also for resources, content and events for key milestones, executives said by phone Monday. Hatch products and its Babe platform, which bills itself as a support system for pregnancy, will ultimately join Janie and Jack in stores and online to some extent, they said.
“The same mom that is ultimately shopping at Janie and Jack, we are trying to engage with her earlier in her motherhood journey, in a very premium manner, in a very cool, experiential manner, if you will, for when she's entering her motherhood journey,” Janie and Jack President and Chief Financial Officer Mo Beig said by phone. “And then how do we take that forward into when she's actually a mom and has got kids.”
Go Global has also invested in Italian children’s brand Brums and ModCloth. Its Hatch acquisition was financed through Janie and Jack Holdings and a senior secured credit facility from MidCap Financial, per the release.
Since Go Global’s acquisition of Janie and Jack, the children’s brand has built up several areas including management, infrastructure, technology, sourcing, distribution and real estate, all strengths that will now benefit Hatch, Beig also said. The children’s brand, which is now profitable and cash-flow positive, is looking to expand globally next year, Beig said.
Hatch was previously tied up with a number of maternity brands acquired by Marquee Brands, via a new entity dubbed Hatch Collective. With that transaction, Goldman last year had operational control in North America for Marquee’s Motherhood Maternity, A Pea in the Pod and Destination Maternity brands. Those other brands are not a part of Go Global’s acquisition of Hatch.
While Go Global invests much like private equity does, the firm’s goals are to grow its acquisitions. Rather than obtain IP rights and cede operational control to outside entities, as some brand management firms do, Go Global is interested in a cohesive strategy, Go Global Senior Partner Yuen Chau said by phone.
“We don't just take a brand and license it. We really want to grow it. And the thing that differentiates us, too, is that, in most cases, private equity would invest in a brand and try to flip it or sell it or squeeze it to its licensing core,” he said. “Here, that's not the case, in fact, quite the opposite. We're platforming, and we believe there's going to be a longer term intrinsic value to what we do and a better return for our investors in the long term. But it's harder work.”
The pandemic interfered with similar plans for ModCloth, which Go Global acquired from Walmart in 2019. The firm sold the women’s apparel brand to Nogin three years ago, saying its outlook had deteriorated during the pandemic as people had less need or desire for dresses, ModCloth’s forte.
