Everlast Worldwide Inc. announced the signing of a new four-year license agreement with Jacques Moret, Inc. of New York City, which grants Moret a license for Everlast men's activewear, sportswear, outerwear, and swimwear in the United States.
Moret will partner with M. Hidary and Company Inc. for design, development, and sales of the activewear portion of the license. They will purchase certain men's apparel inventory owned by Everlast and assume other transitional costs associated with the men's business. Additionally, certain key sales, merchandising and operational personnel will join the new group.
Seth Horowitz, chairman, CEO and president of Everlast, said, “Everlast has achieved tremendous success from operating its own men's apparel business. However, we came to the conclusion that the company and brand would greatly benefit from licensing the men's apparel category to Jacques Moret, Inc., one of the industry's leading suppliers. As a result of this agreement, the men's line will benefit from Moret's market relationships and abilities for sourcing. We are quite familiar with the management of Moret and their strengths, as we granted our U.S. women's apparel license to them late last year. The early success of that license helped to make the decision to grant this license for U.S. men's apparel a logical one. Further, we foresee many synergies for Moret in leading both our men's and women's apparel in the U.S. market place.”
Horowitz continued, “Distribution levels of Everlast men's apparel will remain unchanged and will continue to be focused on department and specialty stores, mid-tier department stores as well as sporting goods retailers. Orders already placed with Everlast for spring and summer men's apparel will be fully shipped in joint efforts between Everlast and Jacques Moret, Inc. during the transition period. Customer satisfaction and avoidance of disruptions will be a top priority for both companies.”
Joey Harary, president of Jacques Moret, Inc., stated,” We are extremely excited with our relationship with Everlast. We have every belief that we will be able to put the resources behind Everlast men's apparel that will result in a significant expansion of shelf-space and an increase in Everlast's brand equity; we believe this will help our women's business significantly, as well. We will be working with M. Hidary and Company Inc. of New York to guarantee that our Everlast men's active apparel business will be handled with the strong emphasis and ultimate expertise it deserves.”
He continued, “Over the past five years, the management of Everlast Worldwide has taken the brand to new heights of consumer awareness through innovative marketing and merchandising programs. Their ability to execute one major brand exposure campaign after the other, through product placement in the critically-acclaimed movies Million Dollar Baby and Cinderella Man, to the unscripted drama, The Contender, produced by Mark Burnett Productions and DreamWorks, has quite frankly amazed us.”
Seth Horowitz concluded by stating, “Licensing men's apparel to Jacques Moret will allow Everlast management to focus its talents and efforts on our professional and retail boxing equipment and worldwide licensing businesses, which have achieved new heights during 2005. In addition, by eliminating our apparel businesses, we believe we will be able to identify and execute even more cost containment initiatives that will further enhance Everlast's operating results.”
