JCPenney and SPARC Combine to Create ‘Compelling Consumer Value Proposition’

Retailers JCPenney and SPARC Group have combined to form a new apparel-focused organization called Catalyst Brands.

The new organization brings together SPARC Group’s five brands — Aéropostale, Brooks Brothers, Eddie Bauer, Lucky Brand and Nautica — and JCPenney and its private brands like Stafford, Arizona and Liz Claiborne, the companies said in a Wednesday (Jan. 8) press release.

With this combination, Catalyst Brands benefits from combined scale, distribution, design and sourcing, the release said.

The new organization has a total of $9 billion of revenue, 1,800 store locations, 60,000 employees and $1 billion of liquidity, per the release. Its brands have served more than 60 million customers over the past three years through owned stores, eCommerce sites and wholesale partners.

Catalyst Brands CEO Marc Rosen, who was previously the chief executive of JCPenney, said in the release that the new portfolio brings “scale, expertise and broad appeal to customers across America.”

“We have a shared belief that customers deserve fashion and style of great quality for any and every moment in life,” Rosen said. “We will leverage our resources and best-in-class industry talent to grow our brands further.”

Catalyst Brands’ relationships with 60 million customers and its data will enable the company to “create a compelling consumer value proposition across our brands,” Rosen said.

“We can design a more personalized shopping experience, offer unified loyalty and credit card programs, and, ultimately, cross-sell more effectively,” he said. “That’s one example of the many benefits we’ll see in this combination.”

The creation of Catalyst Brands is one example of organizational change among large retailers.

In December, members of the Nordstrom family along with Mexican retailer El Puerto de Liverpool announced a deal to acquire all the outstanding common stock of the Nordstrom department store chain. The buyers pegged the value of the all-cash transaction at about $6.25 billion.

Also in December, Saks Global completed its acquisition of Neiman Marcus Group for a total enterprise value of $2.7 billion, bringing together the luxury retail brands Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue and Saks Off Fifth.

“As one company, we have an opportunity to transform the way we serve customers, blending art and science to ensure each customer’s experience is unmistakably their own,” Saks Global Operating Group CEO Marc Metrick said at the time.