Anyone know? I was trying to find out but there is nothing immediately apparent to tell you. I can’t imagine they had the cash in their Howies jeans though so it must be private equity of some sort (at which point they just transfer ownership from large coporate entity to another).

CFH left his wallet in some jeans he sent back

£120 for a pair of jeans and you’re asking where they get money from?

Carpets harbour dust mite which can be detrimental to the health of your family. Consider fitting timber floors in your home.

When I last saw it, my wallet contained about fifty euros, five hundred roubles, ten US dollars and a fiver.

They got a bargain, I reckon! 🙂

*considers timber floors, must earn more to pay for ‘contractor to the stars’*

Heated timber floors?

geetee1972 – Member
Anyone know? I was trying to find out but there is nothing immediately apparent to tell you. I can’t imagine they had the cash in their Howies jeans though so it must be private equity of some sort (at which point they just transfer ownership from large coporate entity to another).

Private equity isn’t necessarily big corporations. It could a business angel.

How much would Howies be worth? Anyone want to check out Companies House?

Is it the same people who set it up, and thus got given money from Timberland when it was bought?

‘contractor to the stars’

*wishes I was more interested in F1*

If it was a roaring success Timberland would have kept it. I suspect they bought it back for a not a lot…

‘contractor to the stars’

I meant the timber flooring contractor to the stars….

I currently manage with a few floor tiles

footflaps – Member
If it was a roaring success Timberland would have kept it. I suspect they bought it back for a not a lot…

Maybe, maybe not. Timberland (and therefore Howies) was bought by VF last summer. Whenever a huge acquisition like that is made some things will be kept, others sold as the parent company consolidates its operations. It could just be that Howies didn’t fit.

Talking about this with a mate down the pub last weekend, and from what he’s read somewhere it’s as CaptJon says, Howies didn’t really fit the vision the new owners of Timberland had for their acquisition, so they were quite happy for Howies to go.
Makes perfect sense.

I’d imagine they made a fair bit of cash when they sold it…

the thing that isn’t clear is if David Hieatt (the Howies founder) or the current management bought it back (he no longer works for Howies – does the Do Lectures and Hiut Jeans iirc).

Down the back of the sofa, well several sofas.

The Hieatts did not buy it back. David seemed negative about it on Twitter.

They bullied it out of finesterre

VC / private equity would be my guess. Here’s our business plan, give us a couple of mill …

Saw that tweet shaggy. He’s pretty up himself isn’t he?

Upset, still, would be my spin.

Private equity isn’t necessarily big corporations. It could a business angel.

True.

What’s the story with Howies then, is there some history there like there is behind the Black Sheep brewery?

deadlydarcy – Member
Carpets harbour dust mite which can be detrimental to the health of your family. Consider fitting timber floors in your home.

Posted 11 hours ago # Report-Post

But who will save us from those pesky dust mites?

Marketing exec’s quit well paid city jobs, set up Howies, canoe to work (once) to make a nice story, pad reasonable products out with story-telling guff about eco-sustainability and do well from it.

idave; you missed the bit here they never update stock on their website, or only have weird sizes in their jeans.

shaggy – Member
The Hieatts did not buy it back. David seemed negative about it on Twitter.

Not sure what David has to be upset about – he was the one who sold it to Timberland in the first place!

Marketing exec’s quit well paid city jobs, set up Howies, canoe to work (once) to make a nice story, pad reasonable products out with story-telling guff about eco-sustainability and do well from it.

Brilliant! Probably quite true as well I imagine.

What’s he upset about? He made a lot of money selling out to timberland. He’s about to try and make even more money with a new (equally guff-filled) jeans firm. How much do we think these jeans will cost?
Have you SEEN the prices that he charges at his “eco” holiday resort? have you SEEN the prices of the “do” events?
For an eco-sustainable warrior, he does a VERY good impression of a money worshiping capitalist IMHO.

Howies are so over rated

so it must be private equity of some sort (at which point they just transfer ownership from large coporate entity to another).

I don’t know howies, but there are different ways to fund a buyout.

Firstly as someone else has suggested if the management team have previously made money from the original exit or other ventures they may have sufficient capital to do it completely.

More commonly they will put in part of the capital and a bank lends the rest. This is probably harder to do since 2008 – but I have heard of this sort of deal still going on last year. Obviously how likely will depend on the assets the company has and the risk of the investment.

Private equity / Vulture capital investment can also provide the money. It could be a straight equity investment but it would be unusual to see it referred to as an MBO then. A PE/VC backed MBO will normally involve a complex mixture of straight equity held by the VC, some sort of loan or agreed buy back terms for the management team on the shares and some form of option / rachet structure that means if the business performs the management get more of the company. Again, in the days when mortgages were easy to come by the management team would probably have remortgaged as well as using their available cash to maximise their chunk of the company up front. The difference between working in a wholy owned subsidiary of a major company and being a significant shareholder in a VC/PE funded stand alone business is quite significant, so whilst it might look like jumping from one corporate master to another – the reality is these guys will only get money in todays climate if they sing from a corporate hymn sheet anyway.

Its also not impossible that Timberland have funded the deal. Basically if they want rid of the company, but don’t need the cash quickly and respect the management team and what they might achieve standalone they may lend to either the company on the management or provide for the exit payments to be trickled out over a prolonged period.

Of course as with all things in corporate finance a single form of funding is not the only answer and it may be a mix of these or even all four.

Poly all that is 100% consistent with how a very close friend of mine has often described how PE/VC deal structuring typically works. Since he runs his own firm, I imagine you also work in the business.

Thanks for taking the time to explain it though. Very informative.

‘contractor to the stars’

More important to have a contractor to the stairs or you’ll have a draughty gap.

It might be on a payday loan at 2568% APR.

I’ve seen the adverts, they solve all your problems.

Dave didn’t buy it back. In fact he was quite upset about the whole thing. He’d been trying for quite a while to buy Howies back from Timberland, and they were having none of it. So Dave went and started Hiut, and took Jon and his partner Anna on board (Jon used to work at Howies). Dave also started the Do Lectures, which seems to be going well – however Howies was always his baby, and he’s truly gutted he didn’t get to buy it back.

The Howies guys are a great bunch, and really passionate about what they do – sure their gear is a little expensive, but it lasts ages. I’ve tees that are years old and still look and feel great. Can’t say the same about crap bought from Topshop or Superwank. Howies were also very grass roots – supporting local riders in the sport with sponsorship and raising awareness.

I’m glad they got control back and look forward to what they do in 2012.

John, my garage doors sticking.

Nearly all things you see referred to as management buyouts are a bit of money from some senior types to keep them in the company then wheelbarrows of cash from a private equity firm. I was involved in one a few years ago and the “management” invested about 8M quid out of 250M quid and not all of that 8M was theirs either.

Personally I love the fit of their jeans – shame the nearest shop has had to close and they have **** all stock online, but this could be a side effect of the buy-back.

Personally I’ll keep buying their jeans if I can ever find them – they might be more expensive than tesco’s specials, but you will also rarely find me pissing white lightning on a park bench.