The Towering World of Jimmy Choo by Lauren Goldstein Crowe

Author:Lauren Goldstein Crowe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Hewer Text UK Ltd
ISBN: 9781608191451
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-11-27T16:00:00+00:00

Ten

Phoenix Rises

Enamored with the shoes and curious about their origin, Robert started to make inquiries: Who was Jimmy Choo? Who owned the brand? And, most important, did they want to sell? Phone calls bounced around Europe until Lori Yedid, a fashion executive with Aeffe in Italy, directed Robert to Tamara. He called her in late April 2001 with his pitch at the ready. As he began to explain his track record at Sonia Rykiel, Cerruti, Lacroix, and Ferré, in order to convince her that he was the one who could take the business to the next level, she interrupted him. “Did Merrill Lynch send you?” she asked.

Although Tom Yeardye had retained the powerful U.S. investment bank Merrill Lynch in the hopes of selling to a buyer in the U.S., where the business was booming, things were not going particularly well. One Gucci Group executive who saw the presentation said, “It was the worst-organized presentation I ever sat through.” The company was too small for Gucci anyway.

Bill Susman, a Merrill Lynch banker, was brought in late in the game after another banker on the transaction retired. “My job was basically to make peace between Jimmy and the Yeardyes. It was clear that all Jimmy wanted to do was make shoes. Tom was acting as a father and as a shareholder. He really believed that Tamara epitomized the customer, unlike Jimmy. She was the image and lived the lifestyle of the brand,” he said.

Soon after the phone conversation with Tamara, Robert met with her and Tom at Tamara’s house to speak in more detail about the situation at Jimmy Choo. Part of the problem from a buyer’s standpoint was that the deal was an odd one, reflecting the turmoil within the company. A shareholders’ agreement required that any buyer had to purchase 70 percent of the company, but it was made clear that 50 percent had to come from either Jimmy’s stake or from the Yeardyes’ stake as they could no longer work together. It was up to the new owners to choose with whom they wanted to work. Tom was willing to renegotiate that point as he was keen to retain a large shareholding in the company. Another major issue was that the rights to open Jimmy Choo stores in North America had been granted to Tom’s old colleagues Philip Rogers and Annie Humphries, and to Tom himself, as he had retained a substantial stake as well in the U.S. operation. Tom promised that Philip and Annie would sell those rights if asked. And lastly, the price tag: They were asking an astronomical sum—around £50 million ($72 million). It was the height of the luxury goods merger and acquisition bubble, after all.

The lack of a professional structure behind the Jimmy Choo operation may have scared off some potential buyers, but it only served to make the company more attractive to Robert. The more chaotic on the back end, the greater the impact a serious manager, like himself, would be able to make.

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