“We are thrilled to have BDT Capital Partners and General Atlantic join us as partners,” Tory Burch, the company’s CEO, said in a statement Jan. 1. “They are completely aligned with our long-term approach to building our brand and share our vision for growth globally.”
Annie Ehrmann, a spokeswoman for Chris Burch at H+K Strategies, said he declined to comment on the sale. Frances Pennington, a spokeswoman for Tory Burch LLC, said Tory Burch declined to elaborate on her statement. Jennifer Dunne, a spokeswoman for BDT, and Patricia Hedley, a spokeswoman for General Atlantic, both said the firms had no comment on the transaction.
The Burches, who opened the first Tory Burch retail store in New York in February 2004 and divorced in 2006, have sold at least two stakes in the company in the past eight years. Access Industries, the investment vehicle owned by Russian-born U.S. billionaire Len Blavatnik, became the company’s first and largest outside investor in 2004, when it bought about 20 percent of the retailer.
Ballet Flats
Today, Access controls about 10 percent of the company, having sold about half of its original holding. Part of that stake was sold in a 2009 investment round that PrivCo said generated $200 million. In that deal, Mexico City-Based private equity firm Tresalia Capital SA acquired an estimated 18 percent stake in Tory Burch.
A representative for Tresalia could not be reached for comment. Stan Neve, a spokesman for Access, declined to comment.
Chris Burch founded his own fashion firm, C. Wonder, in 2011, selling women’s apparel and accessories at lower prices than Tory Burch. The product line -- which includes ballet flats that sell for less than half the price of a similar pair of Tory Burch shoes -- was criticized in a December 2012 Vanity Fair magazine article as a “down-market version” of Burch’s “signature uptown-downtown boho blend.”
Tory Burch was born and raised in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, a suburb outside of Philadelphia. Her father was an investor, having inherited and sold a paper-cup company and a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. A self-described tomboy, her interest in fashion wasn’t sparked until she bought a prom dress during her senior year in high school.