The European Bobby Jones golf apparel operations have been taken over by HMX Group, the New York company that acquired the assets of the failed Hartmarx group last year and has a global apparel license for the Bobby Jones golf brand. This comes after Bobby Jones Lifestyle, the brand’s European apparel licensee based in the U.K., went into administration – a form of insolvency - at the end of February.
As reported in the last issue of SGI Europe, a similar process has taken place for the Greg Norman Collection, following the insolvency of its European licensee, Severn Under. For the Bobby Jones range of golf equipment, operations have also been centralized in the U.S., at the head office of the Bobby Jones Golf Company near San Francisco.
Two KPMG staff members were appointed last month as joint administrators of Bobby Jones Lifestyle, based in Preston, chiefly to sell its stock. A few days later, it emerged that a new U.K. office of HMX would immediately take over the European distribution of Bobby Jones apparel and deliver orders already placed for this year.
The business is relatively small, since the administrators were quoted as saying that its turnover reached about £0.5 million (€556,200-$751,900) last year. There were only three employees left at Bobby Jones Lifestyle when it went into administration, and two of them had already decided to exit the company.
Based in Knutsford, Cheshire, the new U.K. office is run by Lloyd Brooker, who took care of the brand before, and a colleague, Paul Buckels.
Bobby Jones Lifestyle is no longer operational. The company belonged to Woodford Global, a British group involved also in construction and real estate that obtained a deal to sell both Bobby Jones equipment and apparel under license from the beginning of 2008.
HMX is the company that took over the remains of Hartmarx, a large American group specializing in apparel, last August. It owns apparel brands from Hickey Freeman to Hart Schaffner & Marx and Coppley, and has licenses for several other brands, including Bobby Jones apparel and accessories. The company said it would place strong emphasis on the development of Bobby Jones apparel in Europe.
The Bobby Jones line of products is named after an American golfer who distinguished himself by achieving a Grand Slam, winning all four major golf tournaments in a single year, in 1930. Its customer list includes some prestigious courses, such as St. Andrews and Valderrama, but Bobby Jones has yet to build up significant distribution across Europe.
