PVH to sell Speedo North America to Pentland Group

PVH Corp has announced it will be selling its Speedo North America business to Pentland Group, the parent company of Speedo International, for 170 million US dollars. As part of the transaction, the Speedo brand will be licensed in perpetuity to PVH Corp in North America and the Caribbean. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2020.

The Chairman and CEO of PVH Group, Emanuel Chirico, explained in a statement that the move aligns with the company’s goal to “optimize and streamline” its heritage brands in the “ever-evolving retail environment”, focusing on the growth of international brands Clavin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger instead. PVH also owns the brands Van Heuzen, Izod, Arrow, Warner’s, Olga, Geoffrey Beene and True & Co. “I am pleased to see Pentland Group reunite the Speedo business globally, as they are the best positioned to capture the full potential of the iconic Speedo brand”, added Chirico.

Andy Long, CEO of Pentland Group’s Pentland Brands division, also used the same statement to say this is the right time to acquire Speedo North America, as the deal comes ahead of the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo, where Speedo will be sponsoring many athletes. “With the Tokyo Games this year, now is the right time to broing Speedo North America back into our brand portfolio. Pentland has a strong track record of investing in people and international brands and we’re looking forward to welcoming the Speedo North America team into the Pentland family and working together on the next chapters in the Speedo success story.”

Founded in 1932, Pentland Group acquired Speedo in 1991. The company also owns the brands Berghaus, Centerbury, Endura, Ellesse, Seavees and Mitre, in addition to being a majority shareholder of JD Sports, which operates 2,500 stores across 18 countries.