The shoe market gets a shake up. Wolverine Worldwide, Blum Capital and Golden Gate Capital announced to buy Collective Brands.
Wolverine Worldwide will acquire Collective Brands’ Performance + Lifestyle Group (PLG), which includes the wholesale and retail operations of the Sperry Top-Sider, Saucony, Stride Rite and Keds brands, and will continue to operate out of Lexington, Massachusetts. PLG had revenue of more than $1 billion in the fiscal year ended January 31, 2012.
Investment firms Blum Capital and Golden Gate will jointly acquire the operations of Payless ShoeSource and Collective Licensing International (CLI), which together will operate as a standalone entity. Payless will continue to be headquartered in Topeka, Kansas and CLI in Englewood, Colorado. Payless and CLI had combined revenue of approximately $2.4 billion in the fiscal year ended January 31, 2012, operating over 4,300 Payless retail stores globally at year end.
Wolverine World Wide, Inc. already has a portfolio of brands like Hush Puppies, Sebago, Bates and licenses from brands like CAT, Harley-Davidson and Patagonia.