Greg Norman Collection is once again under new ownership, this time acquired by The Tharanco Group from the MacGregor Golf Company. GNC President and CEO Michael Setola will remain CEO and is a partner in the new company, Tharanco Lifestyle, LLC. Terms were not disclosed. The new agreement is effective immediately and Greg Norman Collection will continue to be managed and sold by its existing sales team.
“Greg Norman Collection does a fantastic business with green grass golf retailers and our line has been focused on that market,” noted Michael Setola, CEO of Greg Norman Collection, in an exclusive interview with Sports Executive Weekly and The GOLF Report editors. “We have focused on delivering golf products like shirts, pants, shorts and outerwear as a golfwear collection. However, years ago when the brand was launched it had much more emphasis on sportswear. We see that area as a major growth avenue for the brand and Tharancos experience from a sourcing and a branding perspective will be especially helpful.”
Tharancos experience with the world of sportswear and fashion will help GNC to re-establish its lifestyle and sportswear businesses. However, Setola noted that moves in that direction were already made just last week at the PGA Merchandise Show.
“We actually started to demonstrate our new commitment to the lifestyle part of the business at the PGA show last week when we unveiled a merino sweater collection,” said Setola. “Before we would have a sweater that was part of a particular golf collection, but this year we debuted a collection that is just sweaters that are designed more as classification lifestyle and sportswear pieces. The collection received a great response from the pro shops and will allow us to expand our Fall presence.”
Though GNC now finds itself under yet another new parent company, Setola feels this move is minor compared to the major upheaval following the earlier deal that moved GNC out from under the combined adidas/Reebok business.
“Really, this integration with Tharanco will be pretty straightforward,” Setola said. “The real bump in the road was the earlier deal two years ago that moved us out from under Reebok and into business with MacGregor. At that point, much of our back-end work was handled by Reebok, so we had to figure out all of that ourselves. Now, we can use Tharancos resources there to effectively solve improve on our processes and allow our team to do what they do best, which is design and market our brand.”
Haresh Tharani, CEO of The Tharanco Group states, “The opportunity to partner with one of the market's iconic, globally recognized lifestyle brands and its trusted management team is an exciting step forward for Tharanco. We look forward to bringing our worldwide operations expertise to the Greg Norman Collection and expanding the domestic and international footprint of this well-known brand.”
And Its MacGregor Japan Division…
In addition to selling the Greg Norman Collection business to Tharanco, MacGregor also sold its MacGregor Japan unit. That business was sold to the management team already in place in Japan, led by Masaru Hirayama, CFO.
“They are an excellent team and have done a great job stewarding the MacGregor and MacTech brands in Asia for many years,” said Greg Norman Collection CEO Michael Setola. “It gave us a great deal of pleasure to have them take on the business going forward as their pride and passion for MacGregor are unmatched.”
