Kate Spade & Company

Kate Spade & Company
legal form	Incorporated
founding	1976
Seat	New York City , United States
management	George M. Carrara, CEO
Number of employees	3,900
sales	1,381,000,000 USD
Branch	Textile manufacturer
Website	www.katespadeandcompany.com
	As of December 31, 2016

The Kate Spade & Company since 2014, the successor company of 1976 in New York City based fashion company Liz Claiborne, Inc.

The business fields include the design and marketing of clothing, accessories and perfume. In 2016, the company had 52 licensed retail spaces and 77 outlets worldwide for the main brand kate spade and employed around 3,600 people. Annual sales in 2016 were around $ 1.2 billion. The company has been owned by Tapestry, Inc. (formerly Coach New York ) since 2017 .

history

The logo of the corporate brand kate spade

Kate Spade Boutique in Manhattan

The American fashion designer Liz Claiborne (1929–2007) founded her own fashion company in 1976 with her husband Arthur Ortenberg (1926–2014) and partners in Manhattan. In the year it was founded, the company generated $ 2 million in sales, and by 1978 it was $ 23 million. Claiborne designed complete outfits for chic women's fashion at moderate prices and from 1981, initially under license, accessories, which she had separately presented in American department stores on her own space. The licensing business brought in revenues of $ 1.8 million in 1983. Claiborne brought new designs to market every two months. Working career women for whom she offered a business wardrobe were her main target audience. The company went public in 1981 (NYSE ticker symbol LIZ), had sales of $ 1.2 billion in 1986, and was the first company founded and run by a woman to be included in the Fortune 500 list. In 1982, the former Ellen Tracy designer Dana Buchman joined the company as a fashion designer and, from 1987 onwards, developed her fashion brand, named after her, within the Claiborne Group. Liz Claiborne and her husband retired from management in 1989. In the early 1990s, the company consisted of 19 different business units, including sportswear (from 1991), dresses (from 1982), the Claiborne men's division (from 1985), accessory lines (from 1985), perfume (from 1986), and Dana Buchman Fashion line (from 1987), the Elisabeth fashion line for plump women (from 1989), the First Issue fashion line with its own stores (in the 1990s), women's costumes (from 1991) and others. From 1989 Liz Claiborne shops and outlets were opened in American shopping centers. International expansion began in 1988, first in Canada, then Great Britain and Spain, and finally also in the Netherlands, Ireland, Singapore and Japan. In 1992, non-US revenues were $ 1.2 billion.

In 2000, Liz Claiborne, Inc. had annual sales of $ 3.1 billion. From the 2000s onwards, numerous companies were bought up: as recently as 1999 Lucky Brand Jeans for $ 125 million; in 2001 Mexx Group BV for $ 264 million; in 2002 Mexx Canada for an undisclosed sum; also in 2002 Ellen Tracy, Inc. for $ 170 million; 2003 Juicy Couture for an undisclosed sum; also in 2003 the Enyce brand for $ 114 million; in 2005, C&C California for $ 28 million; also in 2005 prAna for $ 30 million; In 2006, West Coast Contempo Fashions and Mac and Jac Holdings ( mac & jac , kenzie , kenziegirl ) for 23.6 million US dollars as well as 2006 kate spade for 125 million dollars. From 2007 to 2008, Liz Claiborne, Inc. owned a 50% stake in Narciso Rodriguez .

In the mid-2000s, the company had sales of $ 2 billion with its own brand Liz Claiborne, which was mainly sold through department stores such as Macy’s . In 2006, Liz Claiborne, Inc. was ranked 440th on the Fortune 500 list. From the late 2000s , numerous corporate brands were sold under the new CEO William L. McComb, who hired Liz Claiborne Tim Gunn as chief designer for the division : In 2008 Liz Claiborne, Inc. sold the Ellen Tracy brand for 42 million dollars; in October 2008, Enyce went to singer Sean Combs aka P. Diddy for $ 20 million ; In 2011 the majority of Mexx was sold to The Gores Group ; also in 2011 the private label Liz Claiborne was sold to JC Penney for $ 288 million ; In the same year the brands Mac & Jac and Kenzie as well as Dana Buchman went to the Bluestar Alliance and the retailer Kohl's for a total of 40 million dollars. The license collaboration with Donna Karan , which began in 1997, ended in 2012.

15 May 2012 Liz Claiborne, Inc. was officially Fifth & Pacific, Inc. renamed. In 2013, the Juicy Couture brands sold for $ 95 million and Lucky Brand Jeans for $ 225 million. Essentially, only the kate spade division remained in the company. On February 25, 2014, the company was renamed Kate Spade & Company (ticker symbol KATE). William L. McComb was succeeded by Craig Leavitt as CEO in 2014.

On July 11, 2017, the fashion and leather goods group Coach New York, Inc. took over Kate Spade & Company for 2.4 billion US dollars. On July 12, 2017, Kate Spade & Company was taken off the stock exchange. The Coach group renamed itself to Tapestry, Inc. (ticker symbol TPR) in November 2017 and since then has managed, among others, Coach New York (founded in 1941), kate spade and the Stuart Weitzman shoe brand (acquired in January 2015) as subsidiaries . The former Michael Kors designer Nicola Glass has been appointed as the new chief designer at Kate Spade . The former Michael Kors manager Anna Bakst succeeded Craig Leavitt as CEO in the first half of 2018.

In 2016, for the main brand kate spade, the company operated 104 shops and 64 outlets in the USA, as well as 22 shops and 13 outlets in the rest of the world. The brand is available at around 450 retailers worldwide and in selected countries via its own online shop.

Brands

kate spade

After Liz Claiborne, Inc. took over the kate spade brand, company co-founder Kate Spade and her husband left the company in 2007. Kate Spade's successor as designer was former Banana Republic employee Deborah Lloyd. Under Lloyd, a kate spade clothing collection for women was launched for the first time in 2009. Liz Claiborne Inc. reported 2010 kate spade annual sales of $ 184 million. At the end of 2010, Kate Spade was operating 44 boutiques and 29 outlet stores in the USA. In 2012 there were 205 Kate Spade boutiques in 20 countries. In 2013 the second line kate spade Saturdays, originally intended only for Japan, was launched for a younger audience with its own stores in the USA. In 1997 the company kate spade first presented a men's collection of bags and accessories under the name jack spade , which was offered in full from 1999. As a result, two collections were established: Warren Street (higher-priced leather goods and waxed luggage ) and Greene Street (lower-priced canvas line). A clothing line was added in 2009. In 2010 there were five jack spade stores in the United States. In 2012 there were 12 jack spade boutiques in four countries. In 2013 the first European jack spade store was opened in Soho (London) . In 2014, a suit collection was added to the portfolio. In 2015, all kate spade Saturdays and jack spade stores were closed as part of restructuring measures . The second line kate spade Saturdays was integrated into the main line, jack spade was to continue through retail and online trading. In 2016, the equally priced women's two-line kate spade Broome Street was presented; the women's main line is called kate spade Madison Avenue . The men's brand jack spade was discontinued in 2018. After the first women's perfume kate spade beauty was launched in 2002, around a dozen other women's fragrances have been launched by kate spade since 2010. Today, in addition to bags, clothing, shoes and accessories, kate spade also sells costume jewelry, glasses, wristwatches, perfume, paper goods, decorative items and furniture. In 2018 there were 275 stores worldwide operated directly by Kate Spade and the company employed 4,800 people.

Adelington Design Group

The jewelry design agency was founded by Liz Claiborne Inc. to design its own Liz Claiborne and Monet jewelry collections, among other things. These brands have belonged to JC Penney since 2011. The business relationship remained through supplier and license agreements.

Former corporate brands

Liz Claiborne, Juicy Couture , Mexx and Enyce, as well as the less well-known brands Axcess, Bora Bora, C & C California, City Unltd, Crazy Horse, Curve, Dana Buchman, Elisabeth, Ellen Tracy, Emma James, First Issue, Intuitions, JH Collectibles, Kenzie, Kenziegirl, Laundry by Shelli Segal, Mac & Jac, Mambo, Marvella, Monet, Monet 2, Narciso Rodriguez, Prana, Realities, Sigrid Olsen, Soul, Spark, Stamp 10, Tapemeasure, Tint, Trifari, Villager and Yzza .