J. Jill On the Sale Rack
It’s hard to believe that it’s only been three years—less, in fact—that Talbots has owned J. Jill. It seems like much longer to us; it probably seems much longer to Talbots, too: As we reported Friday, J. Jill is on the selling block.
What will Talbots get for it? Certainly not the $517 million it paid for the women’s apparel cataloger/retailer in 2006. Even then, industry watchers were surprised at J. Jill’s hefty price tag.
“That’s a big number for an underperforming company,” Craig Battle, managing director for investment bank Tucker Alexander, told MULTICHANNEL MERCHANT at the time.
Sure, Talbots, was trying to outbid Liz Claiborne, which had been trying to acquire J. Jill for the past two years. But Claiborne’s last offer for J. Jill in November 2005 was $366 million, or 34% less than Talbots ended up paying.
Fast forward three years, and the retail climate is a whole lot worse today, particularly for women’s apparel merchants. (Just ask Chico’s or Coldwater Creek—or Talbots, for that matter.) It will be very interesting to sell who gets J. Jill this time—and for how much.
November 20th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
J.Jill wouldn’t be for sale now if Talbot’s hadn’t ruined it. Old lady clothes– not what J. Jill started out as. I haven’t shopped there the past 2 years, and I probably spent thousands before that.
November 25th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Talbot’s and J.Jill were NOT a good fit. J.Jill is a lot more fashionable and current. I personally love the brand, and the employees there are always genuinely helpful. Since the Talbots acquisition, the J.Jill brand has been a steady downhill run. It will be interesting who acquires this time. Hopefully someone that has a good vision for the company and sees the potential.
May 12th, 2009 at 9:52 am
As I understand the company is in the final stage of being closed. Gordon Brothers Liquidation is looking at them, they only close things up. The Talbots corp.
staff is previewing stores to see what is in them, they’ve not got replenishment or new stock coming into stores afer June. Talbots really screwed up a great company
May 31st, 2009 at 11:32 am
This company is dragging out time on the final days of it’s existence. For more than 5 months, no transferring from one to another to help out in thin time of need, WOW, NO raises, a hiring freeze, managers working overtime, some working 8-10 days in row, no help or answers from DM’s or REg. VP’s, they live in their own little world and might answer an email, if they feel like it. Promo after promo to deplete stock,
I no longer beleive in jjill and what they stood for. It is just plain ugly that this company, Talbots got hold of them to totally brought a company down to their
knees. No longer do I respect the DM’s, the execs, for not listening and for not leading. This has been going on way too long. Our best bet is staff will be leaving unable to tolerate the unknown direction of indecision bought on by a total lack of respect and concern for those who were so willing to do what they could to keep things going. Not one DM or other ever asked staff what can we do, we bet not one of the execs ever set foot in a store to run one and actually work the guest.
They don’t stand on their feet 8 hours a day, call to ask about suggestions from the stores point of view, after all, we are just automatons to ring a sale, and I bet the execs can’t do that either. They’re above it all. We are disappointed in Talbots, J Jill, the reps, the dms, and the original owners for feeding us to the dogs.