Francesca’s Acquires Richer Poorer, L.A.-based Women’s and Men’s Apparel Brand
Francesca’s, the nationwide specialty retailer, has made its first-ever acquisition — L.A.-based apparel brand Richer Poorer.
Richer Poorer, a women’s and men’s wholesale and direct-to-consumer brand of wardrobe essentials, will continue its efforts in those channels this year, but will be fully relaunched in 2024. Iva Pawling, chief executive officer and cofounder of Richer Poorer, will continue to lead the brand in her new expanded role as president of Richer Poorer, Franki, and wholesale.
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Francesca’s, which is headed by chief executive officer Andrew Clarke, operates about 454 Francesca’s and Franki by Francesca’s boutiques in 45 states, and a website. The integration will put Richer Poorer under the Francesca’s Acquisition LLC umbrella as a wholly owned subsidiary.
The price of the acquisition was not disclosed.
The asset purchase of Richer Poorer is a sign of Francesca’s growing financial strength since its 2020 bankruptcy and being taken private in 2021 by TerraMar Capital LLC. Two years since the turnaround, Francesca’s has continued to prioritize growing its e-commerce channel and customer experience; scaling tween brand Franki by Francesca’s; expanding physical boutique experiences, as well as launching the Fran Club loyalty platform and Forever Fran, a resale partnership with ThredUp.
Francesca’s has its eyes on expanding its portfolio in the next few years, targeting like-minded and synergistic brands with a strong Millennial and Gen Z customer segment, and brands that offer items outside of Francesca’s existing product categories, or ones that are complementary.
The Richer Poorer acquisition bolsters channel reach, including leveraging its wholesale network, and introduces new product categories to the brand’s portfolio mix.
“I am delighted to welcome the Richer Poorer team into our expanding portfolio and recognize their success in growing Richer Poorer from start-up into a Gen-Z relevant, sustainable brand, which is a great addition to our ‘free to be you’ company culture,” said Clarke. “Creating this new cooperative of synergistic brands allows us to benefit from a diverse bench strength of expertise while setting up the whole for greater reach into our target markets. This will deliver increased operational efficiencies, accelerate our omnichannel capabilities and open new revenue streams. We are especially grateful to our vendor partners, landlords and lenders who continue to proactively support our company and the initiatives we are pursuing as a management team.”
Richer Poorer uses high-quality sustainable materials in its lineup that includes sweats, Ts and tanks, intimates, dresses and loungewear. Its apparel has been worn by celebrities such as Miley Cyrus, Suki Waterhouse, and Jessica Alba, among others.
“I am thrilled to see Richer Poorer and our team combine forces with two successful female-focused brands, Francesca’s and Franki by Francesca’s,” said Pawling. “We share the same entrepreneurial spirit and couldn’t be more optimistic at the growth opportunity ahead for all these brands through this expansion effort.”
The transaction was completed in partnership with Tiger Capital and financed by Bank of America.
“The shifting DTC landscape has required strong start-up brands like Richer Poorer to seek new means of capital and growth,” said Ryan David, executive managing director of Tiger Capital. “As proven brand-builders, the teams at Francesca’s and TerraMar are ideally positioned to take the brand to the next level.”
Joshua Phillips, managing partner of TerraMar Capital LLC, added, “Completing this acquisition is a meaningful step in the value creation plan for Francesca’s that was established in 2021 when we acquired the business. We look forward to continuing to evaluate other potential acquisitions in the space and working with Andrew and the Francesca’s management team to continue the work towards building the Francesca’s platform to recognize its full potential.”
When asked why the company targeted Richer Poorer, Clarke told WWD, “As part of our strategic growth plans we identified a number of business opportunities that would add enterprise value to our company. These became our ‘checklist’ for potential acquisition candidates. Richer Poorer delivers on many of these, being a similar target customer, adjacent product category, sustainable, digitally native, e-commerce talent and expertise.”
He said the company was inspired by Richer Poorer’s purpose of “making the world a more comfortable place,” and its team’s commitment to upholding those values, which he said, “is a great addition to our ‘free to be you’ company culture'” and it expands the company’s offering with wardrobe staples that its customer base would find in their closet.
Clarke said there are no plans to carry Richer Poorer in the Francesca’s retail stores, and the brand will remain focused on the current Richer Poorer d-to-c experience and wholesale at this time. Richer Poorer is available at retailers such as Free People, Madewell and Neighborhood Goods.
Asked where he sees the growth potential in Richer Poorer, Clarke said, “With Richer Poorer’s impressive DTC track record, robust wholesale network and fan base, this acquisition will allow Francesca’s and Franki to bolster channel reach and grow our share of wallet amongst the target audience of Gen Z and Millennial women.”
He said that while international expansion is on the company’s radar, for now he’s looking to successfully scale these three brands in the U.S.
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