Dive Brief:
- In a self-financed deal, DTC swimwear brand Andie has acquired Richer Poorer, the California-based casual clothing company, according to a company press release. It’s the second sale of Richer Poorer in two years, with Francesca’s purchasing the company in 2023.
- Richer Poorer, which built its brand around fashion basics for men and women, will continue to operate as a separate label under Andie’s ownership. However, both Andie and Richer Poorer will now cross-promote select products on each other’s websites.
- The deal marks Andie’s first acquisition and an expansion into menswear. Clothing under the Richer Poorer label includes an array of tops, bottoms, dresses and intimates for women, while the men’s line features tops, bottoms, innerwear and outerwear.
Dive Insight:
Richer Poorer was founded in 2010 by Iva Pawling and Timothy Morse as a basics label for men and women. In 2023, the brand was acquired by national mall retailer Francesca’s, which operated it for just two years before selling the company to Andie.
Founded as a women’s swimwear brand in 2017 by CEO Melanie Travis, Andie is looking to grow into adjacent categories with a vision of becoming a “multi-brand, multi-category lifestyle business.” The DTC brand views Richer Poorer as a complementary lifestyle business for its existing offerings and plans to keep the brand’s identity intact.
“Customers won’t see big changes — we love the brand and the product, and that’s why we bought it,” Travis said in a statement. “But we’re going to bring fresh energy through a sharper merchandising lens, a best-in-class site experience, fewer stockouts, and faster fulfillment. What customers love about Richer Poorer will remain, just supported by a stronger operational backbone.”
Richer Poorer will be folded into Andie’s e-commerce operations, which will allow it to better drive customer acquisition and optimize inventory. While there is some product overlap between Richer Poorer and Andie, including in intimates, those businesses will remain separate for now, Travis said in an email. “We’ll take a closer look at the category and product overlap over time and likely streamline it eventually, but we don’t have a set timeline for that just yet,” the executive said.
Travis said the company will continue to look for opportunities to broaden the Andie brand, whether by acquisitions or from expanding the namesake brand itself.
“We’re open to both,” she said. “We always look at opportunities through a build-versus-buy lens. Sometimes it makes more sense to create something ourselves, other times it’s better to acquire a brand that’s already built strong customer love (as we determined was the case here). Ultimately, our goal is to serve women with the products they’re looking for across their wardrobe.”
Andie has expanded over the past few years, launching a line of intimates in 2021. In March of this year, Andie also launched a semi-annual incubator program — called the Andie Wave Maker Incubator — which is geared toward providing women-led businesses with resources and guidance.