Item 1. Business
ITEM 1. BUSINESS .
Unless the context otherwise requires, “G-III,” “us,” “we” and “our” refer to G-III Apparel Group, Ltd. and its subsidiaries. References to fiscal years refer to the year ended or ending on January 31 of that year. For example, our fiscal year ended January 31, 2024 is referred to as “fiscal 2024.”
G-III Apparel Group, Ltd. is a Delaware corporation that was formed in 1989. We and our predecessors have conducted our business since 1974.
Overview
We design, source and market an extensive range of apparel, including outerwear, dresses, sportswear, swimwear, women’s suits and women’s performance wear, as well as women’s handbags, footwear, small leather goods, cold weather accessories and luggage. G-III has a substantial portfolio of more than 30 licensed and proprietary brands, anchored by our key brands: DKNY, Donna Karan, Karl Lagerfeld, Nautica and Halston, as well as other major brands that currently drive our business, including Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger. We distribute our products through multiple channels and in markets located in a variety of geographies.
Our own proprietary brands include DKNY, Donna Karan, Karl Lagerfeld, Karl Lagerfeld Paris, Vilebrequin, G.H. Bass, Eliza J, Jessica Howard, Andrew Marc, Marc New York, Wilsons Leather and Sonia Rykiel. We have an extensive portfolio of well-known licensed brands, including Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Nautica, Halston, Levi’s, Guess?, Kenneth Cole, Cole Haan, Vince Camuto, Dockers and Champion. Through our team sports business, we have licenses with the National Football League, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, National Hockey League and over 150 U.S. colleges and universities. We also source and sell products to major retailers for their own private label programs.
Our products are sold through a cross section of leading retailers such as Macy’s, including its Bloomingdale’s division, Dillard’s, Hudson’s Bay Company, including its Saks Fifth Avenue division, Nordstrom, Kohl’s, TJX Companies, Ross Stores, Burlington and Costco. We also sell our products using digital channels through retail partners such as macys.com, nordstrom.com and dillards.com, each of which operates significant digital businesses. In addition, we sell to leading online retail partners such as Amazon, Fanatics, Zalando and Zappos.
We also distribute apparel and other products directly to consumers through our own DKNY, Karl Lagerfeld, Karl Lagerfeld Paris and Vilebrequin retail stores, as well as through our digital sites for our DKNY, Donna Karan, Karl Lagerfeld, Karl Lagerfeld Paris, Vilebrequin, G.H. Bass, Wilsons Leather and Sonia Rykiel brands.
We operate in fashion markets that are intensely competitive. Our ability to continuously evaluate and respond to changing consumer demands and tastes, across multiple market segments, distribution channels and geographic areas is critical to our success. Although our portfolio of brands is aimed at diversifying our risks in this regard, misjudging shifts in consumer preferences could have a negative effect on our business. Our continued success depends on our ability to design products that are accepted in the marketplace, source the manufacture of our products on a competitive basis, and continue to diversify our product portfolio and the markets we serve.
We believe that consumers prefer to buy brands they know, and we have continually sought to increase the portfolio of name brands we can offer through different tiers of retail distribution and for a wide array of products at a variety of price points. We have increased the portfolio of brands we offer through licenses and acquisitions. It is our objective to continue to expand our product offerings and we are continually discussing new licensing opportunities with brand owners and seeking to acquire established brands.
Segments
We report based on two segments: wholesale operations and retail operations.
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Our wholesale operations segment includes sales of products to retailers under owned, licensed and private label brands, as well as sales related to the Karl Lagerfeld and Vilebrequin businesses, including from retail stores operated by Vilebrequin and Karl Lagerfeld, other than sales of product under the Karl Lagerfeld Paris brand generated by our retail stores and digital sites. Wholesale revenues also include revenues from license agreements related to our owned trademarks including DKNY, Donna Karan, Karl Lagerfeld, G.H. Bass, Andrew Marc, Vilebrequin and Sonia Rykiel.
Our retail operations segment consists primarily of direct sales to consumers through our company-operated stores and product sales through our digital sites for the DKNY, Donna Karan, Karl Lagerfeld Paris, G.H. Bass and Wilsons Leather brands. Our company-operated stores primarily consist of DKNY and Karl Lagerfeld Paris retail stores, substantially all of which are operated as outlet stores.
Recent Developments
Repositioning and Expansion of Donna Karan
We acquired the DKNY and Donna Karan brands, two of the most iconic American fashion brands, in December 2016. We initially repositioned and relaunched DKNY and we have successfully grown the brand. We are now focused on the repositioning and expansion of the Donna Karan brand with first deliveries made for Spring 2024. The new Donna Karan is a modern system of dressing created to appeal to a woman’s senses on every level, addressing her full lifestyle needs. Our Donna Karan product is currently being distributed in the United States through our diversified distribution network, including better department stores, digital channels and our own Donna Karan website. Donna Karan is widely considered to be a top fashion brand and is recognized as one of the most famous designer names in American fashion. We believe that the strength of the Donna Karan brand, along with our success with the DKNY brand, demonstrates the potential for our new Donna Karan products.
License Agreement for Nautica Brand
In March 2023, we entered into a long-term license with Authentic Brands Group for women’s apparel under the Nautica brand in North America.
We plan to produce products under the Nautica brand across a number of categories starting with a full women’s jeanswear collection and then expanding in a phased approach into additional categories including sportswear, suit separates and dresses. The new five-year license agreement, effective as of January 2024, includes three extensions, for five years each. First deliveries began in January 2024. The product is expected to be distributed in North America through our diversified distribution network, including better department stores, digital channels and Nautica’s stores and website, as well as in franchised stores globally. We believe that significant opportunity exists in the better women’s apparel space in categories where we have strong expertise.
License Agreement for Halston Brand
In May 2023, we entered into a global twenty-five year master license with Xcel Brands, Inc. to design and produce all categories of men’s and women’s product for the Halston brand.
The agreement provides for an initial term of five years, followed by a twenty-year period, with G-III having the right to terminate every five years. We also have a purchase option for the Halston brand at the end of the twenty-five year term. First deliveries of Halston product are expected to begin in July 2024. Our Halston product is expected to be distributed globally through our diversified distribution network, including better department stores and digital channels. We believe that significant opportunity exists in the better women’s apparel space where G-III has significant expertise.
License Agreement for Champion Brand
In September 2023, we entered into a license with HanesBrands Inc. to design and produce men’s and women’s outerwear collections for their Champion brand in North America.
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The agreement provides for an initial term of five years, effective as of January 2024, with a five year renewal option based on achieving certain sales targets. First deliveries of Champion product are expected for the Fall 2024 season. Our Champion product is expected to be distributed in North America through our diversified distribution network, including better department stores and digital channels. Our collections will feature quality heritage pieces that complement and enhance Champion’s principles. We believe this license aligns with G-III’s core competencies in outerwear and will fit seamlessly into our well-developed outerwear business.
Strategic Initiatives
We are focused on the following strategic initiatives, which we believe are critical to our long-term success:
● Drive our brands across categories: We are a partner of choice to a diversified retail network, supplying a broad range of over 20 apparel, accessory and footwear categories across our owned and licensed brands. Our data-driven approach prioritizes the consumer in all aspects of our business and enables us to create category lines that offer a compelling mix of products. We believe the potential of our brands will assist us in gaining new customers and expanding our product offerings. We have increased our focus on segmenting our portfolio of brands to grow our market share across our distribution channels. Additionally, we have added Nautica and Halston to our portfolio of licensed brands. We believe we can unlock the potential of these brands and expand them into a broad range of additional categories as we diversify their product offerings. We are also launching outerwear for Champion, a well-recognized brand across a wide consumer base.
● Expanding our portfolio of owned brands: We own a portfolio of globally recognized brands including DKNY, Donna Karan, Karl Lagerfeld, Karl Lagerfeld Paris and Vilebrequin, among others. Owning our own brands is advantageous to us for several reasons:
- We have full control of these brands and can distribute them globally across channels, including though our omni-channel retail and online retailers, through off-price channels and direct to the consumer through our stores and digital sites.
- We can realize significantly higher operating margins as we do not pay licensing fees on sales of our proprietary products and can also generate additional licensing revenues (which have no related cost of goods sold) for categories of products we do not produce.
- We are able to license our proprietary brands in new categories and geographies to carefully selected licensees.
- We are able to build equity in these brands to benefit the long-term interests of our stockholders.
We believe we can expand our owned brands and their international reach. Our first full year of ownership of Karl Lagerfeld accelerated this growth. We are investing to increase the lifestyle appeal of our owned brands as we grow them organically. We are also expanding into new lifestyle categories and working with new distribution partners to grow into new geographies. We have experienced positive results in the performance in each of our owned brand’s key licensed product categories. We believe we have significant opportunities to increase the overall profitability of our owned brands.
We continue to explore strategic opportunities, including acquisitions and investments in brands and companies, as well as joint-ventures and licensing opportunities that we believe are additive to our overall business. We take a disciplined approach to any acquisitions, seeking brands with broad consumer recognition that we can grow profitably and expand by leveraging our infrastructure and core competencies.
● Continue to develop and expand our DKNY business and re-position and expand the Donna Karan business: We believe that Donna Karan and DKNY are two of the most iconic and recognizable brands and we are well positioned to unlock their potential and expand the reach of these brands. We are leveraging our demonstrated ability to drive organic growth and develop talent within our Company to maximize the potential of the Donna Karan and DKNY brands. We began our relaunch of our Donna Karan brand in January 2024. The new Donna Karan is a modern system of dressing created to appeal to a woman’s senses on every level, addressing the lifestyle needs of a new consumer. Inspired by the Donna Karan archives, we have thoughtfully created a new
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product line that captures the brand’s ethos of timeless elegance, empowering women and accessible luxury, tailored to meet the lifestyle needs of today’s consumer. We supported this relaunch in several key ways:
- We launched a highly visible marketing campaign to showcase timeless outfits that draw inspiration from popular past Donna Karan product lines.
- We redesigned the Donna Karan website to engage consumers with the power of the brand.
- With our fragrance partner, we launched our first-ever fragrance collection to compliment Donna Karan’s existing iconic fragrance offerings.
Our initial product offering is resonating with consumers. The excitement and attention created by this launch has generated momentum and we believe we can expand the brand globally over time.
DKNY merges modern tailoring with sophisticated ease, celebrating the aspirational and practical spirit of New York, with a highly differentiated perspective from Donna Karan. The brand has global distribution, including premier department stores and their digital sites, partner run stores and online retailers. We believe we have the opportunity to increase the international presence of the DKNY brand through elevating its wholesale profile and developing a digital footprint with Zalando and other key online retailers. We are launching a marketing initiative for DKNY to drive global brand awareness with a focus on the brand’s more youthful appeal.
● Expanding our international business: We continue to expand our international business and enter into new markets worldwide. In fiscal 2023, we acquired the remaining interests in the Karl Lagerfeld fashion brand which grew our European business and added new international expertise. In fiscal 2022, we purchased European luxury fashion brand Sonia Rykiel. We own Vilebrequin, a premier provider of status swimwear, resort wear and related accessories that was founded in Europe. We have created innovative experiences that allow consumers to experience Karl Lagerfeld and Vilebrequin by expanding these brands into the leisure industry, strengthening their global lifestyle appeal and extending their reach. We believe these brands can enable us to expand in the international space and that there is untapped potential for these brands. In addition, we believe that the international sales and profit opportunity is quite significant for our DKNY and Donna Karan businesses and, as a result, we are expanding our DKNY and Donna Karan businesses globally. Continued growth, brand development and marketing in overseas markets is critical to driving global brand recognition.
● Increasing digital channel business opportunities: We are continuing to make changes to our business to address the additional challenges and opportunities created by the evolving role of the digital marketplace in the retail sector and expect to increase sales of our products in an omni-channel environment. We are investing in digital personnel, marketing, logistics, planning, distribution and other strategic opportunities to expand our digital footprint. Consumers are increasingly engaging with brands through digital channels, and we believe that this trend will continue to grow in the coming years. Our key brands serve as the anchor of our business and position us to be the direct beneficiaries of this trend. By continuing to leverage our partnerships with the digital channels operated by major retailers, online distributors and our licensors, as well as building out our own digital capabilities, we intend to facilitate brand awareness, increase consumer engagement and, ultimately, drive sales.
Our Strengths
Broad portfolio of globally recognized brands. In an environment of rapidly changing consumer fashion trends and preferences, we benefit from a balanced mix of more than 30 licensed and proprietary brands anchored by our key brands: DKNY, Donna Karan, Karl Lagerfeld, Nautica and Halston, as well as other major brands that currently drive our business, including Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, all of which have strong brand equity and long-standing consumer appeal. Our overall brand portfolio includes other complementary brands that are diversified across product categories, price points, demographics, occasions, fits and sizes, and styles and genres. Our proprietary brands include DKNY, Donna Karan, Karl Lagerfeld, Karl Lagerfeld Paris, Vilebrequin, G.H. Bass & Co., Eliza J, Jessica Howard, Andrew Marc, Marc New York, Wilsons Leather and Sonia Rykiel. We are a licensee of choice for well-known fashion brands including Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Nautica, Halston, Levi’s, Kenneth Cole, Cole Haan, Vince Camuto, Dockers and Champion. We also license team sports oriented brands, including the National Football League, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, Starter and over 150 U.S. colleges and universities. We believe that our well-
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diversified brand portfolio of key brands and complementary brands is well positioned to satisfy ongoing consumer needs and preferences. Additionally, our experience in developing and acquiring licensed brands and proprietary labels, as well as our reputation for producing high quality, well-designed apparel, has led major customers to select us as a partner of choice for their own private label programs.
We currently market apparel and other products under, among others, the following licensed and proprietary brand names:
Women's
Men's
Team Sports
Licensed Brands
Calvin Klein
Calvin Klein
National Football League
Calvin Klein Jeans
Tommy Hilfiger
Major League Baseball
Tommy Hilfiger
Kenneth Cole
National Basketball Association
Nautica
Halston
National Hockey League
Halston
Champion
IMG Collegiate Licensing Company
Champion
Cole Haan
Starter
Kenneth Cole
Levi's
Cole Haan
Dockers
Levi's
Margaritaville
Vince Camuto
Margaritaville
Proprietary Brands
DKNY
G-III Sports by Carl Banks
DKNY
Karl Lagerfeld
G-III for Her
Donna Karan
Karl Lagerfeld Paris
Karl Lagerfeld
Andrew Marc
Karl Lagerfeld Paris
Marc New York
Andrew Marc
Vilebrequin
Marc New York
G. H. Bass & Co.
Vilebrequin
Wilsons Leather
Sonia Rykiel
G. H. Bass & Co.
Eliza J
Jessica Howard
Long-standing relationships forged with retailers and license partners through emphasis on design, sourcing and quality control. We believe our core strengths provide a foundation that drives our partnerships with retailers and licensors. Our in-house design and merchandising teams design substantially all of our licensed, proprietary and private label products, and our designers work closely with our licensors and private label customers to create designs and styles that represent the look they seek to project. We believe that we have developed a significant customer following and positive reputation in the industry as a result of our design capabilities, sourcing expertise, on-time delivery and high standards of quality control. Our service, brand stewardship and industry expertise have allowed us to continue to deliver as a go-to preferred partner for many of our customers.
Well-developed supply chain infrastructure is a key core competency that leverages strong vendor relationships developed over the past 40 years. We have long-standing, trust-based relationships with our vendors that form the foundation of our global supply chain that has been built upon over the last 40 years. We have a network of worldwide suppliers that allows us to access the highest quality products, negotiate competitive terms without relying on any single vendor, access new technology and design insights, and enhance our market intelligence. We support and cultivate these relationships by continuously investing management time while also maintaining a physical presence in key jurisdictions. We employ a quality control team and a sourcing group to ensure the quality of our products, as well as local teams that operate on the ground with a hands-on approach and a deep-rooted knowledge base with respect to our manufacturers. By working closely with our global partners on all aspects of the supply chain, we aim to safeguard against potential disruptions. We believe that we have a long-standing competitive advantage with our current supply chain partners and we continue to focus on broadening the breadth and depth of our inventory sourcing capabilities. We continue to focus on
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methods aimed at bolstering production and devising and implementing strategies to further diversify our production base and expand sourcing capabilities across the globe while leveraging best practices and strong vendor relationships.
Diversified business mix across customers, price points, products, and distribution channels. We market our products at multiple price points and across multiple channels of distribution, allowing us to provide products to a broad range of consumers. Our products are sold to approximately 1,700 customers, including a cross section of retailers such as Macy’s, including its Bloomingdale’s division, Dillard’s, Hudson’s Bay Company, including its Saks Fifth Avenue division, Nordstrom, Kohl’s, TJX Companies, Ross Stores and Burlington and Costco. We also sell our products using digital channels through retail partners such as macys.com, nordstrom.com and dillards.com, each of which has a substantial online business. In addition, we sell to leading online retail partners such as Amazon, Fanatics, Zalando and Zappos and have made minority investments in two e-commerce retailers. Our strong relationships with retailers have been established through many years of personal customer service and our objective of meeting or exceeding retailer expectations. In addition, we continue to make changes to our business to address the additional challenges and opportunities created by the evolving role of the online marketplace in the retail sector and expect to expand the sale of our products in an omni-channel environment. As economic conditions waver and consumer trends change, we believe that our deep-rooted relationships across the retail landscape, diversified brands serving a wide range of consumers and our product portfolio mix that covers a broad mix of price points allow us to operate on a flexible and advantageous basis.
Experienced management team. Our executive management team has worked together for a significant period of time and has extensive experience in the apparel industry. Morris Goldfarb, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, has been with us for over 45 years. Sammy Aaron, our Vice Chairman and President, joined us in 2005 when we acquired Marvin Richards, Neal S. Nackman, our Chief Financial Officer, has been with us for more than 20 years and Jeffrey Goldfarb, our Executive Vice President, has been with us for over 20 years. In addition, in January 2024, Dana Perlman joined us as our Chief Growth and Operations Officer. This newly created role is intended to leverage Ms. Perlman’s over 20-year career in apparel, strategy and finance to drive innovation, optimize operations and identify new opportunities. Our leadership team has demonstrated experience in successfully acquiring, managing, integrating and positioning new businesses having completed over ten acquisitions and several joint ventures over the last 20 years, while also adding numerous new licenses and licensed products to our portfolio.
Wholesale Operations
Licensed Products
The sale of licensed products is a key element of our strategy and we have continually expanded our offerings of licensed products for over 25 years. Sales of licensed products accounted for 53.4% of our net sales in fiscal 2024, 58.6% of our net sales in fiscal 2023 and 67.2% of our net sales in fiscal 2022. Net sales of products under the Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger brands constituted approximately 41.0% of our net sales in fiscal 2024 and approximately 48.0% of our net sales in fiscal 2023.
In November 2022, we announced the extension of licenses for Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger products. The amendments to the license agreements for these products provide for staggered extensions by category that expire beginning December 31, 2024 and continuing through December 31, 2027.
PVH Corp., the owner of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, has indicated that it intends to produce these products itself once the license agreements expire. Unless we are able to increase the sales of our other products, acquire new businesses and/or enter into other license agreements covering different products, the inability to renew the Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger license agreements would cause a significant decrease in our net sales and have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.
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In March 2023, we announced the signing of a long-term license with Authentic Brands Group for women’s apparel under the Nautica brand in North America. We will produce across a number of categories, starting with jeans then expanding in a phased approach into additional categories including sportswear, suit separates and dresses. The new five-year license agreement, effective as of January 2024, includes three extensions for five years each. First deliveries began in 2024.
In May 2023, we announced the signing of a long-term master license with Xcel Brands, Inc. for the Halston brand for all categories of Halston men’s and women’s product. The agreement provides for an initial term of five years, followed by a twenty-year period, with G-III having the right to terminate every five years. We also have a purchase option for the Halston brand at the end of the twenty-five year term. First deliveries of Halston product are expected to begin in the July 2024.
In September 2023, we announced the signing of a long-term license with HanesBrands Inc. to design and produce men’s and women’s outerwear collections for their Champion brand in North America. The agreement provides for an initial term of five years, effective as of January 2024, with a five year renewal option based on achieving sales targets. First deliveries of Champion product are expected for the Fall 2024 season.
Date Current
Date Potential Renewal
License
Term Ends
Term Ends
Fashion Licenses
Calvin Klein (Men's outerwear)
December 31, 2025
None
Calvin Klein (Women's outerwear)
December 31, 2025
None
Calvin Klein (Women's dresses)
December 31, 2026
None
Calvin Klein (Women's suits)
December 31, 2026
December 31, 2029
Calvin Klein (Women's performance wear)
December 31, 2025
None
Calvin Klein (Women's better sportswear)
December 31, 2024
None
Calvin Klein (Better luggage)
December 31, 2027
None
Calvin Klein (Women's handbags and small leather goods)
December 31, 2026
None
Calvin Klein (Men's and women's swimwear)
December 31, 2026
None
Calvin Klein Jeans (Women's jeanswear)
December 31, 2024
None
Champion (men's and women's outerwear)
December 31, 2028
December 31, 2033
Cole Haan (Men's and women's outerwear)
December 31, 2028
December 31, 2030
Dockers (Men's outerwear)
November 30, 2024
None
Halston (men's and women's apparel)
December 31, 2028
December 31, 2048
Kenneth Cole NY/Reaction Kenneth Cole (Men's and women's outerwear)
December 31, 2027
None
Levi's (Men's and women's outerwear)
November 30, 2027
None
Margaritaville (Men's and women's apparel)
December 31, 2025
December 31, 2030
Nautica (Women's sportswear, jeanswear, tailored clothing and dresses)
December 31, 2028
December 31, 2043
Tommy Hilfiger (Men's and women's outerwear)
December 31, 2025
None
Tommy Hilfiger (Luggage)
December 31, 2027
None
Tommy Hilfiger (Women's sportswear)
December 31, 2025
None
Tommy Hilfiger (Women's dresses)
December 31, 2026
None
Tommy Hilfiger (Women's suits)
December 31, 2026
December 31, 2029
Tommy Hilfiger x Leagues
December 31, 2025
None
Vince Camuto (Women's dresses)
December 31, 2025
None
Team Sports Licenses
Collegiate Licensing Company
December 31, 2024
None
Major League Baseball
December 31, 2027
None
National Basketball Association
September 30, 2025
None
National Football League
March 31, 2028
None
National Hockey League
June 30, 2025
None
Starter
December 31, 2029
December 31, 2039
We have continually sought to increase our portfolio of name brands, product offerings and tiers of distribution because we believe that consumers prefer to buy brands they know and brand owners prefer to engage licensees who have a successful track record of developing brands.
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Under our license agreements, we are generally required to achieve minimum net sales of licensed products, pay guaranteed minimum royalties, make specified royalty and advertising payments (usually based on a percentage of net sales of licensed products), and receive prior approval of the licensor as to all design and other elements of a product prior to production. License agreements may also restrict our ability to enter into other license agreements for competing products or acquire businesses that produce competing products without the consent of the licensor. If we do not satisfy any of these requirements or otherwise fail to meet our material obligations under a license agreement, a licensor usually will have the right to terminate our license. License agreements also typically restrict our ability to assign or transfer the agreement without the prior written consent of a licensor and generally provide that a change in control, including as a result of the acquisition of us by another company, is considered to be a transfer of the license agreement that would give a licensor the right to terminate the license unless it has approved the transaction. Our ability to renew a license agreement may be subject to the discretion of the licensor or to attaining minimum sales and/or royalty levels and to our compliance with the provisions of the agreement.
Proprietary Brands
Dating back to the beginning of our company, G-III has sold apparel under its own proprietary brands. Over the years, we developed or acquired brands such as G-III Sports by Carl Banks, Eliza J and Jessica Howard. We also acquired Andrew Marc, an aspirational luxury outerwear brand, G.H. Bass, a well-known heritage brand, and Vilebrequin, a premier swimwear and resort wear brand. In our most significant acquisition to date, we acquired Donna Karan International, which owns DKNY and Donna Karan, two of the world’s most iconic and recognizable brands. In October 2021, we acquired European luxury fashion brand Sonia Rykiel and in May 2022, we acquired the remaining interests that we did not own in the iconic Karl Lagerfeld fashion brand. We currently design, manufacture, distribute and sell products under our own proprietary brands, as well as license our proprietary brands in a variety of categories and across geographies. We continue to seek new licensing opportunities to broaden the reach of these brands and evaluate opportunities to acquire established brands.
DKNY and Donna Karan
We own two of the world’s most iconic fashion brands: DKNY and Donna Karan. First launched in 1984, DKNY and Donna Karan design, source, market, retail and distribute collections of women’s and men’s clothing, sportswear, handbags, accessories and shoes under the DKNY and Donna Karan brand names.
Based on DKNY’s and Donna Karan’s significant brand equity, we believe there are opportunities to expand existing categories, launch new initiatives and develop an even stronger licensing and distribution base. We believe that both the DKNY and Donna Karan brands have the potential for significant growth. In addition, we expect increased revenues from licensing and from sales growth across many categories of the business channels and geographies
After acquiring the brands in December 2016, we initially focused on re-positioning and re-launching the DKNY brand. Our DKNY products are designed to merge modern tailoring with sophisticated ease, celebrating the aspirational and practical spirit of New York, with a highly differentiated perspective from Donna Karan. Products developed reflect the DNA of the DKNY brand and visual identity for the new evolution of DKNY. We believe that DKNY is a premier fashion and lifestyle brand. DKNY products produced by us or by our various licensees are sold through department stores, specialty retailers and online retailers worldwide, as well as through company-operated retail stores, digital sites and international brand partners and distributors.
We believe that the Donna Karan brand also offers significant growth potential. We are now focused on the re-positioning and expansion of the brand with first deliveries made for Spring 2024. The new Donna Karan is a modern system of dressing created to appeal to a woman’s senses on every level, addressing the full lifestyle needs of a new consumer. Inspired by the Donna Karan archives, we have thoughtfully created a new product line that captures the brand’s ethos of timeless elegance, empowering women and accessible luxury, tailored to meet the lifestyle needs of today’s customer. Donna Karan product is distributed in better department stores, digital channels and our own Donna Karan website in North America. Donna Karan is widely considered a top fashion brand and is recognized as one of the most famous designer names in American fashion. Our initial product offerings are resonating with consumers. The excitement and global attention created by this launch has generated momentum and we believe we can expand the brand globally over
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time. We believe that the strength of the Donna Karan brand, along with our success with the DKNY brand, demonstrates the potential for our new Donna Karan products.
We believe there are significant opportunities to enhance the digital business of DKNY and Donna Karan, prudently manage the retail store base for DKNY over the long term and capitalize on our industry relationships in seeking premium placement for DKNY and Donna Karan product categories in department and other retail stores globally.
Karl Lagerfeld
In May 2022, we acquired the remaining interests in the Karl Lagerfeld fashion brand that we did not own. The addition of the Karl Lagerfeld fashion brand to the G-III portfolio of owned brands advances several of our strategic initiatives, including increasing the direct ownership of brands, capitalizing on their licensing opportunities and further diversifying our global presence. This acquisition represents a significant opportunity to expand our international presence by further developing our European-based brands which also include Vilebrequin and Sonia Rykiel. We believe that Karl Lagerfeld’s existing digital channel presence could enable us to enhance our omni-channel business and further accelerate our digital initiatives. The influential legacy of the Karl Lagerfeld brand embodies a creative expression that aligns with our goal to provide innovative products for our customers.
The iconic Karl Lagerfeld brand is known for its signature aesthetic combining Parisian classics with a rock-chic attitude and tailored silhouettes. Its portfolio of accessible, aspirational collections includes ready-to-wear apparel for women, men and children, as well as handbags and small leather goods. Licensed collections include watches, eyewear, footwear, perfumes, candles and fashion jewelry. As of January 31, 2024, Karl Lagerfeld products are distributed through more than 200 stores worldwide, including 70 company-operated stores, located primarily internationally and through digital channels. In addition, Karl Lagerfeld is distributed through a premium wholesale distribution network in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Vilebrequin
Vilebrequin is a premier provider of status swimwear, resort wear and related accessories. Vilebrequin products are sold in over 100 countries around the world. We believe that Vilebrequin has the potential to significantly develop its distribution network worldwide and expand its product offerings. A majority of Vilebrequin’s current revenues are derived from sales in Europe and the United States. As of January 31, 2024, Vilebrequin products were distributed through select wholesale distribution, 104 company-operated stores and 95 licensed stores across over 100 countries, as well as digitally on www.vilebrequin.com.
Vilebrequin’s iconic designs and reputation are linked to its French Riviera heritage arising from its founding in St. Tropez over forty years ago. Vilebrequin’s men’s swimwear, which accounts for the majority of its sales, is known for its exclusive prints, wide range of colors, attention to detail, fabric quality and well-designed cuts. In addition to men’s swimwear, Vilebrequin sells a collection of women’s swimwear, children’s swimwear, men’s resort wear, women’s resort wear, children’s resort wear and related accessories including hats, beach bags, beach towels, shoes, sunglasses, watches and pool floats. We believe that Vilebrequin is a powerful brand. We plan to continue adding more company operated and franchised retail locations and increase our wholesale distribution of Vilebrequin products throughout the world.
In April 2023, Vilebrequin opened the first Vilebrequin Beach club in Cannes, France. Vilebrequin also opened a branded beach cabana club at the Boca Raton Hotel in Florida. In the fall of 2023, Vilebrequin entered into a multi-year licensing agreement with a developer of a luxury lifestyle hotel in Miami Beach, Florida to design a rooftop pool deck, restaurant and retail store that is expected to open in late 2024. These hospitality offerings are expected to expand Vilebrequin’s brand awareness. We expect to continue to expand with store openings in global key markets and reinforce the luxury status of Vilebrequin through immersive brand experiences.
Sonia Rykiel
In October 2021, we purchased European luxury fashion brand Sonia Rykiel. Sonia Rykiel, who created this well-known brand, was one of the leading figures of Parisian fashion. We relaunched the brand in the fall of 2022 with collections that
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celebrate the brand’s legacy and archives. We are seeking to reinforce Sonia Rykiel’s position in relevant markets and we plan to further expand the brand’s global footprint in fiscal 2025. We are committed to preserving Sonia Rykiel’s distinct identity while embracing fresh perspectives and creative collaborations.
Licensing of Proprietary Brands
As our portfolio of propriety brands has grown, we have licensed these brands in new categories. We began licensing Andrew Marc, Vilebrequin, Sonia Rykiel and G.H. Bass in selected categories after acquiring these brands. Our licensing program has significantly increased as a result of owning the DKNY, Donna Karan and Karl Lagerfeld and Karl Lagerfeld Paris brands. We currently license our proprietary brands in a variety of categories and continue to seek new licensing opportunities to broaden the reach of these brands.
We have strong relationships with category leading license partners, including, but not limited to, Marchon, Komar and Inter Parfums. The DKNY and Donna Karan brands have worldwide license agreements for a broad array of products including fragrance, intimates, eyewear, bedding and bath products and women’s sleepwear and loungewear. Additionally, we license the DKNY brand in the United States and internationally for children’s clothing, children’s footwear, men’s and women’s watches, jewelry, men’s tailored clothing, men’s sportswear, men’s dress shirts, men’s underwear, men’s loungewear, men’s swimwear, men’s and women’s golfwear, men’s and women’s socks, furniture, tech accessories and rugs.
We have a long-term global licensing agreement with Inter Parfums, Inc. for the creation, development and distribution of fragrances and fragrance-related products under the DKNY and Donna Karan brands. The initial term of the license extends through December 31, 2032 and includes a 5 year option to renew given the achievement of certain sales targets. We believe the fragrance category enables our brands to connect more broadly with global consumers.
We have also recently entered into license agreements for the creation, development and distribution of men’s underwear under the DKNY and DKNY Sport brands in the United States and Canada, tech accessories under the DKNY brand throughout the world and rugs under the DKNY brand in North America.
We intend to continue to focus on expanding licensing opportunities for the DKNY and Donna Karan brands. We believe that we can capitalize on significant, untapped global licensing potential for these brands in a number of categories and we intend to grow royalty streams by expanding existing licenses, as well as through new categories with new licensees.
We license the Karl Lagerfeld brand for a wide range of product categories including, but not limited to, footwear, men’s apparel, fragrances, children’s clothing, eyewear and tech accessories. Additionally, we license the Karl Lagerfeld Paris brand for bedding and bath products.
We license the G.H. Bass brand in the United States and internationally for men’s, women’s and children’s footwear, children’s clothing, men’s and women’s sportswear apparel and bedding and bath products.
We license the Andrew Marc brand in North America for men’s and boy’s tailored clothing and men’s and women’s denim.
We license the Vilebrequin brand internationally for fragrance and soap related products, watches, denim and paddleboards.
We license the Sonia Rykiel brand internationally for children’s apparel, women’s footwear and women’s fashion jewelry.
Retail Operations
As of January 31, 2024, our retail operations segment consisted of 53 stores operated under our Karl Lagerfeld Paris and DKNY brands, as well as digital channels for the DKNY, Donna Karan, Karl Lagerfeld Paris, G.H. Bass, Andrew Marc and Wilsons Leather businesses.
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Our Karl Lagerfeld Paris stores offer a range of products including sportswear, dresses, outerwear, handbags and footwear. Our DKNY stores offer a large range of products including sportswear, dresses, outerwear, handbags, footwear and athleisure apparel.
We are developing additional digital marketing initiatives on our websites and through social media. We are investing in digital personnel, marketing, logistics, planning, distribution and other strategic opportunities to expand our digital footprint. Our digital business for our retail operations segment consists of our own web platforms at www.dkny.com, www.donnakaran.com, www.karllagerfeldparis.com, www.ghbass.com and www.wilsonsleather.com. Our digital business also includes our own web platforms at www.vilebrequin.com, www.soniarykiel.com and www.karl.com which are part of our wholesale operations segment.
We sell our products over the web through retail partners such as macys.com, nordstrom.com and dillards.com, each of which has a substantial online business. In addition, we sell to leading online retail partners such as Amazon, Fanatics, Zalando and Zappos.
Products — Development and Design
G-III designs, sources and markets women’s and men’s apparel at a wide range of retail price points. Our product offerings primarily include outerwear, dresses, sportswear, swimwear, women’s suits and women’s performance wear. We also market footwear and accessories including women’s handbags, small leather goods, cold weather accessories, and luggage.
G-III’s licensed apparel consists of both women’s and men’s products in a broad range of categories. See “Wholesale Operations — Licensed Products” above. We seek licenses that will enable us to offer a range of products targeting different price points and different distribution channels. We also offer a wide range of products under our own proprietary brands.
We work with a diversified group of retailers, such as Macy’s, Harley-Davidson, Costco, Kohl’s and Ross Stores in developing product lines that are sold under their private label programs. Our design teams collaborate with our customers to produce custom-made products for their stores. Store buyers may provide samples to us or may select styles already available in our showrooms. We believe we have established a reputation among these buyers for our ability to produce high quality product on a reliable, expeditious and cost-effective basis.
Our in-house designers are responsible for the design and look of our licensed, proprietary and private label products. We work closely with our licensors to create designs and styles for each of our licensed brands. Licensors generally must approve products to be sold under their brand names prior to production. We maintain a global pulse on styles, using trend services and color services to enable us to quickly respond to style changes in the apparel industry. Our experienced design personnel and our focused use of outside services enable us to incorporate current trends and consumer preferences in designing new products and styles.
Our design personnel meet regularly with our sales and merchandising departments, as well as with the design and merchandising staffs of our licensors, to review market trends, sales results and the popularity of our latest products. Our designers present their evaluation of the styles expected to be in demand in the United States. We also seek input from selected customers with respect to product design. We believe that our sensitivity to the needs of retailers, coupled with the flexibility of our production capabilities and our continual monitoring of the retail market, enables us to modify designs and order specifications in a timely fashion.
Manufacturing and Sourcing
G-III’s wholesale operations and retail operations segments arrange for the production of products from a global network of independent, third-party manufacturers, primarily located in Asia. During fiscal 2024, approximately 77% of our product was sourced from Vietnam, China and Indonesia. We do not own any manufacturing facilities.
Our sourcing operations are based in China and Hong Kong in order to facilitate better service and manage the volume of manufacturing in Asia. These offices act as an agent for substantially all of our sourcing in Asia and monitors production at manufacturers’ facilities to ensure quality control, compliance with our manufacturing specifications and social
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responsibility standards, as well as timely delivery of finished garments to our distribution facilities. We also have sourcing offices in Vietnam, Indonesia, Jordan and Bangladesh to help support these efforts.
Prior to placing production, and on a recurring basis, we conduct assessments of political, social, economic, environmental, trade, labor and intellectual property protection conditions in the countries in which we source our products, and we conduct assessments of our manufacturers and supply chain, as discussed under “Vendor Code of Conduct” below. In connection with the manufacture of our products, manufacturers purchase raw materials including fabric and other materials (such as linings, zippers, buttons, and trim) at our direction. We regularly inspect and supervise the manufacture of our products in order to ensure timely delivery, maintain quality control and monitor compliance with our manufacturing specifications. We also inspect finished products at the factory site.
We generally arrange for the production of products on a purchase order basis with completed products manufactured to our design specifications. We assume the risk of loss predominantly on a Freight-On-Board (F.O.B.) basis when goods are delivered to a shipper and are insured against losses arising during shipping.
We have not entered into any long-term contractual arrangements with any contractor or manufacturer. We believe that the production capacity of each foreign manufacturer with which we have developed, or are developing, a relationship is adequate to meet our production requirements for the foreseeable future. We believe that alternative foreign manufacturers are readily available.
A majority of all finished goods manufactured for us is shipped to our distribution facilities or to designated third party facilities for final inspection, allocation, and reshipment to customers. The goods are delivered to our customers and us by independent shippers. We choose the form of shipment (principally ship, truck or air) based upon a customer’s needs, cost and timing considerations. We expect all of our suppliers shipping to the United States to adhere to the requirements of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (“C-TPAT”) program, including standards relating to facility security, procedural security, personnel security, cargo security, and the overall protection of the supply chain. In the event a supplier does not comply with our C-TPAT requirements, or if we have determined that the supplier will be unable to correct a deficiency, we may move that supplier’s product through alternative supply chain channels or we may terminate our business relationship with the supplier.
Vendor Code of Conduct
We are committed to ethical and responsible conduct in all of our operations and respect for the rights of all individuals. We strive to ensure that human rights are upheld for all workers involved in our supply chain, and that individuals experience safe, fair and non-discriminatory working conditions. In addition, we are committed to compliance with applicable environmental requirements and are committed to seeing that all of our products are manufactured and distributed in compliance with applicable environmental laws and regulations. We expect that our business partners will share these commitments, which we enforce through our Vendor Code of Conduct. Our Vendor Code of Conduct specifically requires our manufacturers to not use child, forced or involuntary labor and to comply with applicable environmental laws and regulations. We provide training and guidance to the factories our contractors use related to our Vendor Code of Conduct and the applicable laws in the country in which the factory is located. The training provides the factories with a more in-depth explanation of our Vendor Code of Conduct. In addition to their contractual obligations, we evaluate our suppliers' compliance with our Vendor Code of Conduct through audits conducted both by our employees and third-party compliance auditing firms on an annual basis.
Human Capital
Our People
As of January 31, 2024, we employed approximately 3,500 persons on a full-time basis and approximately 1,100 on a part-time basis. We employ both union and non-union personnel and believe that our relations with our employees are good. We have not experienced any interruption of our operations due to a labor disagreement with our employees.
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We are an Equal Opportunity Employer with policies, procedures and practices that recognize the value and worth of each individual, covering matters such as safety, training, advancement, discrimination, harassment and retaliation. We provide training on important issues to our personnel. G-III ensures compliance with labor and employment law issues through a variety of processes and procedures, using both internal and external expertise and resources. We continue to work towards achieving a stronger, more engaging workplace coupled with a foundation for enhancing the employee experience by continuing to promote our passion for our product, pride in our partnerships, our accountability and our entrepreneurial spirit.
We are committed to providing a healthy work environment that allows employees to feel highly valued, productive and effective within their jobs by maintaining an inclusive environment which we believe positively impacts employee engagement. Our employees are the heart of our organization and our ongoing emphasis to recruit and retain the best talent in our industry continues as a top priority. We are constantly striving to build upon and improve our talent acquisition and selection processes, onboarding experience and training initiatives.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
We are a diverse workplace and know that, to succeed, we must become an even more diverse, equitable and inclusive organization. Currently, approximately 60% of our leadership team and 72% of our overall workforce self-identify as women, and 48% of our overall workforce identify as Black, Indigenous and People of Color (“BIPOC”). Of our fourteen Board members, there are four women and four people of diverse backgrounds, exceeding NASDAQ requirements for board diversity. We recognize that insights and ideas from a diverse range of backgrounds will better position us for the future and continue to work towards increasing Board diversity.
Our commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion also extends outside of our business. We are a founding member of the groundbreaking Social Justice Center at the Fashion Institute of Technology (“FIT”), a premier fashion university, whose purpose is to help establish a program that is intended to increase opportunities and accelerate social equity for BIPOC persons entering our industry for years to come. Additionally, we continued our partnership with UNCF (“United Negro College Fund”) by sponsoring two enriching and rewarding student internships. These interns were provided room and board at FIT. They participated in a program that consisted of educational master class sessions and experienced New York theatre and other local programs. In addition, we funded two scholarships through UNCF. In fiscal 2025, we will continue to support our diversity efforts by working directly with Historically Black Colleges and Universities by providing two students the opportunity to gain firsthand experience working at G-III.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are at the heart of G-III’s values. We strive to create a workplace with opportunities for all. We have made progress and intend to continue to do so in the coming years.
Talent Acquisition, Development and Retention
Having the right talent in the organization is one of the most critical aspects of our business. This year our HR team focused on hiring, developing and retaining talent. After a successful launch of our Lunch and Learn program facilitated by our leadership team, we have continued the program by offering a second semester of courses that will provided an opportunity for continuous learning about our business. We have procured a training solution program that will incorporate a G-III Master Class training library that will make these sessions and other educational tools accessible to our employees.
Through our aggressive recruiting, we have been able to bring in best-in-class talent. We had several key hires at the Company, including our Chief Growth and Operations Officer, Dana Perlman, who has significant industry experience through her over 20-year career in apparel, strategy and finance.
Compensation, Benefits, Safety and Wellness
We firmly believe our comprehensive benefit programs are an integral part of our talent acquisition, retention and overall employee experience. We continually evaluate and benchmark our programs to ensure they remain competitive, on-trend and meet compliance. Our fiscal 2025 goals include enhancing our employee education on the value of our benefit programs. We successfully re-introduced our onsite Benefits and Health Fair for corporate employees for the first time
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since the pandemic. In addition to our benefit programs, we annually recognize the tenure of our employees with service awards and celebrated 98 employees with service of 10, 20, 25, 30, and 35 years. We look forward to continuing this longstanding G-III tradition.
Corporate Social Responsibility
We invested significant time and resources furthering our key initiatives, developing programs and expanding our Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR”) agenda. We have made important progress to reinforce our social and environmental standards as we continue to refine our oversight of our supply chain.
● Engage Our People – In line with our entrepreneurial spirit, we have worked hard to advance our strategic priorities and build upon the success of fiscal 2023, skillfully navigating through another tough environment. We remain focused on fostering a stronger, more engaging workplace for our employees. We have invested in new HR systems to enhance our recruitment process and talent retention to ensure we bring in and keep best-in-class talent, and we have expanded our Lunch and Learn programs, led by our leadership team, to facilitate opportunities for continuous learning and development for our team.
We recognize the importance of ensuring the workers in our supply chain are treated fairly and our vendors are abiding by our Vendor Code of Conduct. Thus, we work closely with suppliers to develop and implement strategies that align with our social and environmental standards. We have also enhanced the effectiveness of our supplier audits through our continued participation in the Social & Labor Convergence Program, allowing us to reduce the number of audits for suppliers, lessening redundancies in shared audits and better assist factories to focus on addressing their most pressing issues.
Forced labor continues to be a point of focus across our industry, and we work closely with our supply chain partners to mitigate the risk of forced labor being used to make our products or raw materials utilized in our products. We have advanced our internal cotton traceability program through the implementation of annual Cotton Compliance Monitoring training sessions to educate our staff and factories about our requirements and procedures for ensuring the ethical sourcing of cotton. We are enhancing our program by working on ways to couple these traceability lessons with other materials in our products. We continue to explore ways other SaaS technologies might mitigate risks. We also continue to leverage the testing capabilities of ORITAIN TM to trace materials back to their fiber origins to mitigate the risk that forced labor is used in our supply chain. We routinely engage with counsel and industry organizations with respect to regulatory developments to ensure our practices and procedures are aligning with the continually developing regulatory landscape, and we remain committed to ensuring proper treatment for everyone who works in our supply chain.
● Protect Our Environment – We continue to work towards reducing the environmental impact of our own operations and that of our entire supply chain by enacting sustainable fashion practices and working closely with our supply chain partners.
This year also marked our second year as a part of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (“SAC”) as we continue to collaborate with others in the industry to strengthen our social and environmental programs and improve vendor performance. We are implementing the SAC’s Higg Facility Environmental Module across our Tier 1 and 2 supplier factories, providing us with greater insight into their environmental impact and allowing us to identify opportunities for further improvement.
We are making progress on our goal to transition our synthetic materials to 100% recycled sources by 2030. We are also working to increase the use of recycled, organic, and natural fibers, and we are introducing recycled synthetic fibers certified by the Global Recycled Standard or the Recycled Claim Standard into a growing number of our products. Notably, in 2023, Vilebrequin, our premier European swimwear brand, manufactured over 80% of its products from preferred materials which consistently deliver reduced impacts and increased environmental benefits.
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Over the past year we have furthered our work with our sustainability consultants and are collecting Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions data from across our Company to better understand our GHG emissions. Once we have established our baseline, we will work to implement best practices to reduce our environmental impact. We are also focused on collecting our Scope 3 data and are developing our long-term sustainability strategy.
● Invest in Our Communities – Consistent with our longstanding commitment to philanthropy, we have continued to maximize opportunities with our charitable partners, including Ronald McDonald House, Women in Need (“WIN”), Delivering Good, Hetrick Martin Institute and City Harvest. We have developed an internal associate committee so our employees can actively engage in developing and executing charitable initiatives across our organization.
We have a solid foundation in place, which we continue to build upon as we build our new Corporate Sustainability Strategy centered around our core CSR principles: Engage Our People, Protect Our Environment and Invest in Our Community.
Customs and Trade Issues
Our arrangements with textile manufacturers and suppliers are subject to requisite customs clearances for products and the imposition of export duties. Customs duties on our products presently range from duty free to 37.5%, depending upon the product, composition, construction, country of origin and country of import. A substantial majority of our product is imported into the United States and, to a lesser extent, into Canada and Europe. Countries in which our products are sold may, from time to time, impose new duties, tariffs, surcharges or other import controls or restrictions or adjust prevailing duty or tariff levels. Any action by the executive branch of the United States government to increase tariffs on imported goods, such as the imposition of tariffs on goods manufactured in China, could adversely affect our business.
Under the provisions of the World Trade Organization (“WTO”) agreement governing international trade in textiles, known as the “WTO Agreement on Textiles and Clothing,” the United States and other WTO member countries have eliminated quotas on textiles and apparel-related products from WTO member countries. As a result, quota restrictions generally do not affect our business in most countries.
Apparel and other products sold by us are also subject to regulations that relate to product labeling, content and safety requirements, licensing requirements and flammability testing. We believe that we are in compliance with those regulations, as well as applicable federal, state, local, and foreign regulations relating to the discharge of materials hazardous to the environment.
Section 301 Tariffs
Section 301 tariffs on certain goods from China went into effect in 2018. The United States Trade Representative (“USTR”) is required to conduct a review of the effectiveness and economic impact of a Section 301 action every four years or else the tariffs would expire. In May 2022, USTR announced that it was commencing a four-year review and between November 2022 and January 2023, USTR accepted comments from the public as to whether the Section 301 tariffs should be continued, terminated, or modified. Section 301 tariffs were set to expire in September 30, 2023. In December 2023, the USTR announced the extension through May 2024 of certain Section 301 exclusions. It is difficult to accurately estimate the impact on our business from these tariff actions or similar actions or when any additional tariffs may become effective.
China Most Favored Nation Status
Following accusations against China that it employed forced labor in manufacturing processes within the country, a bill was introduced in January 2023 to strip China of its permanent Most Favored Nation status, effectively requiring China to re-secure its position by annually applying for presidential approval as a member country. Two pieces of legislation intended to revoke China’s Permanent Most Favored Nation status are pending in Congress. Because Most Favored Nation status grants special treatment among member counties with respect to tariffs, if this bill were to pass it would substantially increase tariffs between the United States and China.
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GSP Update
The Generalized System of Preferences (“GSP”) program, which extends preferential tariff treatment to certain products from beneficiary developing countries, expired on December 31, 2020. Re-authorization of GSP requires an act of Congress. GSP has been allowed to expire several times since it was enacted in 1974. Each time that GSP has been renewed following a lapse, the renewal has been retroactive, allowing for duties paid on GSP-eligible goods to be refunded following the re-authorization.
The Chairman of the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee has indicated that he plans to introduce a bill that would reauthorize GSP. It has not been determined whether the potential future re-authorization of the GSP program will be fully retroactive and what will be the duration such re-authorization.
Marketing and Distribution
G-III’s products are sold primarily to department, specialty and mass merchant retail stores in the United States. We sell to approximately 1,700 customers, ranging from national and regional chains to small specialty stores. We also distribute our products through our retail stores and through digital channels for the DKNY, Donna Karan, Vilebrequin, Karl Lagerfeld, Karl Lagerfeld Paris, G.H. Bass, Wilsons Leather and Sonia Rykiel businesses, as well as the digital channels of our retail partners such as Macy’s, Nordstrom, Amazon, Fanatics, Zalando and Zappos.
Sales to our ten largest customers accounted for 70.1% of our net sales in fiscal 2024, 74.2% of our net sales in fiscal 2023 and 78.0% of our net sales in fiscal 2022. Sales to Macy’s, which includes sales to its Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s store chains, as well as through macys.com, accounted for an aggregate of 19.2% of our net sales in fiscal 2024, 21.6% of our net sales in fiscal 2023 and 23.9% of our net sales in fiscal 2022. Sales to TJX Companies accounted for an aggregate of 13.6% of our net sales in fiscal 2024, 15.4% of our net sales in fiscal 2023 and 14.8% of our net sales in fiscal 2022. In addition, sales to Ross Stores accounted for an aggregate of 10.1% of our net sales in fiscal 2024, 9.2% of our net sales in fiscal 2023 and 12.7% of our net sales in fiscal 2022. The loss of any of these customers or a significant reduction in purchases by our largest customers could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.
A substantial majority of our sales are made in the United States. We also sell our products to customers in Europe, Canada, the Far East, the Middle East, Central America, South America and Australia, which, on a combined basis, accounted for approximately 22.5% of our net sales in fiscal 2024, 19.1% of our net sales in fiscal 2023 and 14.5% of our net sales in fiscal 2022.
Our products are sold primarily through our direct sales force along with our principal executives who are also actively involved in the sale of our products. Some of our products are also sold by independent sales representatives located throughout the United States. The Canadian market is serviced by a sales and customer service team based both in the United States and in Canada. Sales outside of the United States and Canada may be managed by our salespeople located in our sales offices in Europe or Asia depending on the customer. Vilebrequin products are sold through a direct sales force primarily located across Europe.
Brand name products sold by us pursuant to a license agreement are promoted by institutional and product advertisements placed by the licensor. Our license agreements generally require us to pay the licensor a fee, based on a percentage of net sales of licensed product, to pay for a portion of these advertising costs. We may also be required to spend a specified percentage of net sales of a licensed product on advertising placed by us.
Our marketing efforts for the repositioned and expanded Donna Karan brand are focused on high impact brand campaigns with globally recognizable talent. We are building brand awareness through messaging that communicates the brand’s historical origins and relevance to today’s consumer. We have also launched noteworthy media and marketing initiatives to support our wholesale and retail channels. We will continue to invest in paid strategies that place the brand in outdoor, print and digital media.
DKNY’s marketing efforts are focused around communicating brand DNA and visual identity for the new evolution of the brand. We are building global awareness through high impact ad campaigns that feature relevant and noteworthy talent.
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We strive to create marketing initiatives, collaborations and image programs to bring in a new, young customer. We will support global licensees with campaigns and product images through our brand story. We continue to invest in digital media and storytelling for brand amplification and to establish comprehensive commercial marketing tools that will support our global wholesale and retail channels.
Karl Lagerfeld’s marketing efforts are inspired by Karl Lagerfeld’s own mantra: “embrace the present and invent the future.” We continuously seek to share relevant and engaging content, with a focus on high impact campaigns and digital content. Inspired by Karl Lagerfeld’s own passion for collaboration, we regularly foster partnerships with top tier artists, tastemakers and icons. Our campaigns for the Karl Lagerfeld brand are intended to grow awareness across our retail, digital, wholesale and franchise channels. In North America, the Karl Lagerfeld Paris brand further amplifies this vision through locally-relevant brand engagement.
In Spring 2023, Vogue’s Met Gala, along with the museum’s summer exhibition, paid tribute to the life and work of Karl Lagerfeld. This event created significant momentum for the brand and resulted in increased awareness, interest and growth in the Karl Lagerfeld and Karl Lagerfeld Paris brands.
In fiscal 2025, we expect to launch a project with a developer who will construct and sell 51 luxury villas under the Karl Lagerfeld brand in Dubai. We expect that a new Karl Lagerfeld fragrance will be introduced to the market in summer 2024. In September 2024, we expect to reopen our London Regent Street flagship store with our latest, elevated store concept and launch our Karl Studio collection of iconic pieces supported by a comprehensive marketing and communications campaign. Our retail partners around the world are hosting events, pop-up shops and dedicating store windows to Karl Lagerfeld.
Vilebrequin’s marketing efforts have been based on continually offering new swimwear prints and expanding the range of its products to new categories such as women’s swimwear, ready-to-wear and accessories. Besides its traditional advertising networks (print and outdoor advertising), Vilebrequin is seeking to develop new marketing channels through the use of digital media, product placement, impactful collaborations and public relations. Through the growth of its network of stores, distributors and franchisees, Vilebrequin is seeking to reinforce its position in its traditional markets, such as the United States, Europe and the Middle East, and to develop new markets in Asia.
We believe we have developed awareness of our other owned labels primarily through our reputation, consumer acceptance and the fashion press. We primarily rely on our reputation and relationships to generate business in the private label portion of our wholesale operations segment. We believe we have developed a significant customer following and positive reputation in the industry as a result of, among other things, our standards of quality control, on-time delivery, competitive pricing and willingness and ability to assist customers in their merchandising of our products.
As digital sales of apparel continue to be an important part of our business, we are developing initiatives to increase our digital presence through our own websites and through the websites of our retail partners. We are working closely with our retail partners to provide consumers with a high quality viewing experience for our products. We are also working to increase our digital sales through marketing, social influencers and other online drivers of sales.
Seasonality
Retail sales of apparel have traditionally been seasonal in nature. Historically, our wholesale business has been dependent on our sales during our third and fourth fiscal quarters. Net sales during the third and fourth quarters accounted for approximately 59% of our net sales in fiscal 2024, 60% of our net sales in fiscal 2023 and 64% of our net sales in fiscal 2022. We are highly dependent on our results of operations during the second half of our fiscal year. The second half of our fiscal year is expected to continue to provide a larger amount of our net sales and a substantial majority of our net income for the foreseeable future.
Trademarks
We own some of the trademarks used by us in connection with our wholesale operations segment, as well as almost all of the trademarks used in our retail operations segment. We act as licensee of certain trademarks owned by third parties that
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are used in connection with our business. The principal brands that we license are summarized under the heading “Wholesale Operations – Licensed Products” above. We own a number of proprietary brands that we use in connection with our business and products including, among others, DKNY, Donna Karan, Karl Lagerfeld, Karl Lagerfeld Paris, Vilebrequin, G.H. Bass, Andrew Marc, Marc New York, Eliza J, Jessica Howard, Wilsons Leather, Sonia Rykiel and G-III Sports by Carl Banks. We have registered, or applied for registration of, many of our trademarks in multiple jurisdictions for use on a variety of apparel and related other products.
In markets outside of the United States, our rights to some of our trademarks may not be clearly established. Our attempt to expand into foreign markets, we may experience conflicts with various third parties who have acquired ownership rights in certain trademarks that would impede our use and registration of some of our trademarks. Such conflicts may arise from time to time as we pursue international expansion. Although we have not in the past suffered any material restraints or restrictions on doing business in desirable markets or in new product categories, we cannot be sure that significant impediments will not arise in the future as we expand product offerings and introduce additional brands to new markets.
We regard our trademarks and other proprietary rights as valuable assets and believe that they have value in the marketing of our products. We vigorously protect our trademarks and other intellectual property rights against infringement.
INFORMATION ABOUT OUR EXECUTIVE OFFICERS
The following table sets forth certain information with respect to our executive officers.
Name
Age
Position
Morris Goldfarb
73
Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and Director
Sammy Aaron
64
Vice Chairman, President and Director
Neal S. Nackman
64
Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer
Jeffrey Goldfarb
47
Executive Vice President and Director
Dana Perlman
43
Executive Vice President and Chief Growth and Operations Officer
Morris Goldfarb is our Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, as well as one of our directors. Mr. Goldfarb has served as an executive officer of G-III and our predecessors since our formation in 1974.
Sammy Aaron is our Vice Chairman and President, as well as one of our directors. He has served as an executive officer since we acquired the Marvin Richards business in July 2005. Mr. Aaron is also the Chief Executive Officer of our Calvin Klein divisions.
Neal S. Nackman has been our Chief Financial Officer since September 2005 and was elected Treasurer in April 2006. Mr. Nackman served as Vice President — Finance from December 2003 until April 2006.
Jeffrey Goldfarb has been our Executive Vice President and Director of Strategic Planning since June 2016, and serves as one of our directors. He has been employed by G-III in a number of other capacities since 2002. Prior to becoming Executive Vice President, he served as our Director of Business Development for more than five years. Jeffrey Goldfarb is the son of Morris Goldfarb.
Dana Perlman has joined us as our Executive Vice President and Chief Growth and Operations Officer in January 2024. Prior to joining us, Ms. Perlman was an executive at PVH Corp. from 2012 to 2022, most recently serving as PVH’s Chief Strategy Officer and Treasurer from May 2021 to July 2022. In that position, she led global business strategy and development along with Treasury and Investor Relations. Prior to joining PVH, Ms. Perlman held several roles in investment banking retail groups at Barclays Capital, Lehman Brothers, and Credit Suisse First Boston.
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