Our client is Styling Services, a rapidly growing footwear
group owned by the Munro family. Styling Services is a national
wholesaler and retailer of fashion footwear, which owns and
distributes popular shoe brands such as Mollini, Midas, Django
& Juliette, I Love Billy and Gamins through more than
500 stockists in Australia. It also operates over 65 retail
stores throughout Australia under the Midas and Cinori
brands.
We recently acted for Styling Services in a trio of retail
acquisitions, including leading online footwear retailer
Styletread, fashion forward retailer Wanted (which operates 17
stores in NSW) and the $20m retail chain Mountfords (based in
Victoria).
Our client's ambition with Styletread was to capitalise on an
increasingly popular online footwear market at a time when local
retailers are facing increasing pressures from competitive
international forces. The latest Wanted and Mountfords acquisitions
form part of the Group's long-term strategy to grow its national
retail presence.
We worked closely with the Munro family on the three deals and
our technical work included the transfer of some 30 retail
leases in Victoria and NSW, assignment of intellectual property
rights and dealing with over 200 employees across the new
businesses.
Each transaction was time sensitive and involved due diligence
on the businesses and assets, drafting and negotiating business
sale agreements and other transaction documents and advice on
employee, intellectual property, tax, property and other
transition matters.
The transaction was led by Dean Katz, partner in our Corporate
& Commercial group with assistance from senior
associate Ali Khanbashi (Commercial Property), consultant
Tracey O'Neill (Employment & Industrial Relations) and
lawyer Remziye Hussein (Corporate & Commercial).
Our experienced team, drawn from a number of specialities, were
able to add value and deliver commercial and timely results,
while realising our client's objective to 'stay ahead of the
pack' within the footwear industry.