True Capital acquires Bench and Nicce owner Apparel Brands

True Capital has acquired Manchester-based Apparel Brands Limited (ABL), the owner of a variety of labels including 1990s favourite Bench. 

The London investment firm’s portfolio already includes By Rotation, Ribble, Reskinned, Buywith, Hush and many more. To that can now be added ABL’s portfolio that, along with Bench (which it owns in all markets except the Americas), includes Nicce and Hooch. And it sells Smith & Jones, Ed Hardy, Farah, Seafolly, Money and Caterpillar under license.

Companies House filings show True Capital director Ejike Onuchukwu has “significant control” of ABL via Garm Bidco Ltd of which Onuchukwu is the sole director. That entity has a 75% stake with the rest held by Omp Brandco Limited whose only director is another ABL director, Peter Wood.

The control of the business had previously been with Baker Street Holdings of which French Connection co-owner Amarjit Singh is the only director. 

The news was reported by BusinessLive, which said few other details about future plans are available at present but more information is expected “in the coming weeks”.

However, Peter Wood did say that he’s “delighted to partner with True. Their deep understanding of brands and the consumer and retail market, coupled with their vast experience in nurturing and scaling successful businesses, will be invaluable as we embark on our next phase of growth”.

And True co-founder and CEO Paul Cocker added that it has been “developing our relationship” with ABL in recent years and is “excited to partner with Peter and the team, supporting their relentless focus on providing value to their customers”.

Meanwhile Onuchukwu explained that there’s “a defensible model at ABL and we see a compelling opportunity to rapidly scale its branded offering by adding complementary properties to its existing portfolio across different price points from value to premium”.