Walmart (WMT) Buys Fashion Startup Eloquii

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Walmart (NYSE:WMT) announced that the company will acquire plus-size fashion startup Eloquii.

Walmart

The retailer is looking for ways of expanding its position in the apparel space in order to appeal more to younger shoppers. The company’s first step towards doing so comes with an agreement to acquire Eloquii, a startup that’s been around for four years.

The startup has been manufacturing and selling its own line of fashion for plus-sized women, operating almost entirely out of its own website. Eloquii is also selling apparel through five of its own stores, plus it sells some products through Dia&Co, Stitch Fix and other online services.

Neither Walmart nor Eloquii has revealed the financial details of the deal, but a person who is close to the matter but chose to remain anonymous that that the former will pay $100 million for the latter. The amount is roughly 2.5 to 3 times the startup’s annual revenue.

Eloquii CEO Mariah Chase will join Walmart’s e-commerce division, along with her 100 employees. They will all report to the retailer’s head of digital consumer brands Andy Dunn, who joined Walmart last year following the sale of his menswear brand Bonobos to the retail giant for $310 million.

Eloquii was developed due to the fact that most women’s fashion was geared towards more slender body types despite the fact that more than half of all U.S. women are in the plus size range.

WMT stock was up about 0.7% Tuesday afternoon following the news.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2018/10/walmart-eloquii-wmt/.

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