JOE BOXER HITS CHINA
Contact The Author
A host of middle-brow consumer brands including Joe Boxer, Candies and Mossimo will soon be courting shoppers in China.
New York-based Iconix – which owns those brands and others including Ocean Pacific, London Fog and Royal Velvet – is forming a new partnership to distribute its fashions to a fast-growing Chinese middle class, The Post has learned.
The joint venture, called Iconix China, is targeting an underserved niche, Iconix CEO Neil Cole told The Post.
Luxury labels have already begun to saturate shopping districts in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai.
But middle-market brands, especially from the US, remain relatively few, even as the population of China’s middle class approaches 700 million, Cole said.
“We believe we can do 16 different deals over the next couple of years and really start going after this emerging lower-to-middle class – the factory workers and all the people in China that are now getting the Internet and television,” Cole said.
The 16 deals Iconix will be seeking – one for each of the consumer brands it owns – are with local companies that have “the potential to go public,” Cole said.
In exchange for an equity stake, Iconix will provide them with brands, marketing and other support.
The joint venture also may acquire stakes in other Asian brands.
Iconix China will also manage royalties for brands that already have been licensed out, including OP, which is licensed to Wal-Mart; London Fog, licensed to New Foundations and Cannon and Royal Velvet, licensed to Li & Fung.
Iconix’s Hong Kong-based partner in the joint venture, Novel Fashion Holdings, is owned and run by Silas Chou, an apparel-industry veteran who formerly was a co-chairman of Tommy Hilfiger.