Hampshire Group, Limited (OTC
Markets:HAMP) (“Hampshire” or “the Company”),
November 25, 2016 announced that the
Company and two of its U.S. subsidiaries have filed voluntary
petitions under Chapter 11 in the
U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware in order to facilitate
the orderly wind down of their business
operations.
Below for historical purposes:
Wholesaler: Men's Sportswear, Women's Sportswear, Knitwear, Sweaters.
Hampshire Group, Limited
Hampshire Group, Limited is a leading U.S.
provider of women's and men's sweaters, wovens and knits, and a
growing designer and marketer of branded apparel. Its customers
include leading retailers such as Macy's, Kohl's, JC Penney,
Dillard's, Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom, for whom it provides
trend-right, branded apparel. Hampshire's owned brands include
Spring+Mercer®, its newly-launched “better” apparel line, Designers
Originals®, the Company's first brand and still a top-seller in
department stores, as well as Mercer Street Studio®, Requirements®,
and RQT®. The Company also licenses the Geoffrey Beene® and Dockers®
labels for men's sweaters, both of which are market leaders in their
categories, and recently acquired licenses for classification labels
of the Joseph Abboud® and Alexander Julian® brands for men's tops
and bottoms.
Hampshire Group
consists of three distinct divisions: Hampshire Designers and Item-Eyes
for women's apparel and Hampshire Brands for men's. All offer products
under several brand names as well as private label to multiple channels
of distribution, including national and regional department stores and
mass market retailers.
Hampshire
Designers
One of the foremost designers and marketers of women's sweaters
and cut and sewn knits, Hampshire Designers offers a wide range of looks
to key retailers in the United States. Brand names include Designers
Originals®, Spring+Mercer®, Mercer Street Studio®, Luxe360® and
Hampshire Studio®. Each label has its own sensibility and target tier of
distribution including JCPenney, Macy's, Dillard's, Bloomingdales and
Nordstrom. New fabrications and lighter weights have expanded the
business while the recent addition of the Spring+Mercer® label has been
well received by retailers and consumers alike and has given the
division entree into a higher price point category.
Item-Eyes
Sold to the moderate sportswear departments of key
retailers including Kohl's, JCPenney, Sears, Stage Stores and Goody's,
Item-Eyes® offers related women's sportswear under several brand names.
Requirements®, RQT®, Nouveaux®, REQ® and Tara Ryan® are positioned to
sell to a specific retail channel as well as customer profile. The
product offering in each brand includes coordinating jackets, sweaters,
skirts, pants and soft dressing pieces. Each label is designed to appeal
to a wide cross section of multiple customers and address all the facets
of her varied lifestyle. Newness comes every season in fabrication,
silhouette, pattern and color.
Hampshire
Brands
The men's division of the company, Hampshire Brands, has a strong
presence in a very competitive market. Marketing a wide range of
knitwear under the licensed Geoffrey Beene® and Dockers® brands as well
as the proprietary Spring+Mercer® the men's division is a leader in its
category. Already selling to a broad range of accounts including Macy's,
JCPenney, Kohl's, and Sears the exciting addition of Joseph Abboud
Components® for a Fall 2008 retail launch will allow the division to
expand it's product range from primarily sweaters to other product
categories shipped year round.
History of HampshireGroup:
1956:
|
Predecessor company begins selling acrylic sweaters under the
Designers Originals® label. |
1977:
|
Hampshire Group, Limited is
formed through the merger of two unrelated companies. |
1992:
|
Hampshire
Group has initial public offering of its common stock. |
1995:
|
Segue, Ltd., a designer and
importer of novelty sweaters, is acquired. |
1996:
|
Hampshire
sells over 10 million sweaters. |
1997:
|
Hampshire Investments is
formed to diversify the Company's asset base. The company
obtains license to sell men's sweaters under the Geoffrey Beene®
label. |
1998: |
The
ladies hosiery business is sold to a management group. |
1999:
|
Levi Strauss & Co. licenses
the company to sell sweaters under it Dockers® label. |
2000:
|
All
manufacturing plants are sold as the company continues to build
a worldwide sourcing network. Item-Eyes, Inc., a company selling
related separates primarily under its Requirements® brand, is
acquired by the company. |
2002:
|
The company sells approximately 19
million sweaters and approximately 5.5 million units of related
separates. |
2003:
|
The Company sold
Hampshire Investments, Limited, its real estate company, to a
management group for 700,000 shares of Hampshire Group, Limited
common stock.The company introduced the Spring + Mercer® brand. |
2004:
|
The company introduced RQT® for women's
related separates. The company consolidated its distribution
centers in California to expedite deliveries to its customers |
2007:
|
The company signs licensing agreement
with JA Apparel for Joseph Abboud® Components Line. |
2007:
|
The company moves into state of the art
showroom/office space consolidating the women's divisions.
|
2008:
|
The company launches Luxe360, a more
refined and versatile fabrication marketed under the Designers
Originals, Hampshire Studio and Mercer Street Studio labels.
|
2008:
|
The company launches REQ, a
contemporary related separates collection exclusively at Sears.
|
There is more to the Hampshire Group. We
have only listed portion of their achievements.