Waverly bidders compete, Blass next on block  

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 7/2/2008 1:31:00 PM

New York – Licensing and franchise company NexCen Brands “is moving very quickly” in its quest to raise funds by selling its Waverly and Bill Blass brands, the company told HTT.

Rick Platt, president of the Waverly and Bill Blass brands for home, said there are more bidders for the Waverly brand than have been reported. Published reports in the New York Post today cited NexCen rival Iconix Brand Group and an investment group led by Windsong Brands and Hilco Consumer Capital. (One figure behind the scenes – legendary merchant/marketer Marvin Traub – sits on the board of NexCen and is also chairman of SD Retailing, a Hilco division.)

“The priority has been with the Waverly brand, but we will be starting up the effort with Bill Blass in a week or two,” Platt told HTT.

As for pricing on the Waverly brand, Platt commented, “We paid $36.9 million and we believe we have made tremendous progress. The strategy is strong, the revenue streams are very good, and we’ve added significant new licenses.”

“Our goal is to get paid more for the brand or at least what we paid,” Platt said. “We expect to get paid for all the work we’ve done.”