Bluestar Alliance LLC Announces the Closing of the Acquisition of the Brookstone® Brand and Related Assets

NEW YORK, Oct. 19, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Bluestar Alliance announces the closing of its acquisition of the innovation and quality-focused Brookstone brand.  Participating in the acquisition is Apex Digital Inc., a major U.S. consumer electronics company that will operate the Brookstone website and airport stores, and bebe stores, inc.

Brookstone, the iconic American brand founded over 50 years ago in New Hampshire, is known for innovative and solution-oriented products, most notably in the Entertainment, Wellness, Home & Travel categories. The acquisition by Bluestar, a leader in the brand licensing and management business, opens the way for expanding the wholesale distribution of Brookstone products to some of the largest retailers in America, as well as to international retailers across the world.  It also keeps open 30 Brookstone airport stores, serving as showcases for the Brookstone brand and products, and retaining 350 jobs.

"We are excited to begin renewing Brookstone's innovation and its flow of new products to the market," stated Joseph Gabbay, CEO of Bluestar Alliance LLC. "London Luxury is the brand's first new licensee, known for its expertise in the bedding, home textile and memory foam categories. We are thrilled to have London Luxury as our licensee partner as they exemplify the standard consumers will expect from the Brookstone brand. We are also seeing strong interest from a myriad of prospective licensees as well as enthusiastic retail partners. Contracts with best-in-class manufacturers in key categories including massage products, home environment, audio and travel products are already expected to close this week." 

"Apex Digital is a great partner to run the Brookstone website and airport stores," said Ralph Gindi, COO of Bluestar Alliance LLC. "Apex is a major player in the consumer electronics market, developing advanced products and distributing them to the largest U.S. retailers, including Microsoft retail, Costco and Staples. They will operate the Brookstone.com website and e-commerce business, as well as the airport stores. Their great experience in e-commerce will bring tremendous synergies to the partnership and dramatically improve the performance and productivity of Brookstone's e-commerce business to state-of-the-art. Apex is the perfect partner to build on and extend Brookstone's heritage of innovation into the next decade."  

"With Bluestar Alliance's tremendous domestic and global presence across multiple brands and categories, our new licensing partnership will yield significant results for all of our constituents," said Apex Chairman David Ji. "We are proud to announce this partnership and look forward to a long and prosperous relationship with Bluestar."

"This marks our first step out of the traditional history of Apex as an importer and manufacturer into multi-channel retailing," said Tasso Koken, Apex Chief Executive. "Our goal is to expand our store portfolio across the US at the most significant airport locations, building off the heritage of the Brookstone brand while creating a value proposition for our customers that reflects best-in-class brands and products curated for their specific needs.  David and I have a long history together and real-world experience in retailing, product development and manufacturing. At this stage of our careers we want to create a great experience for our customers and an equally great opportunity for all of our employees and associates," he continued. "This is a tremendously positive outcome for fans of the Brookstone brand," said Apex Executive Jason Liu. "Moving forward, we're going to be very actively expanding the assortment of Brookstone products both online and in our airport stores, as well as adding new innovations from up-and-coming makers and global tech brands. New is what customers expect from Brookstone, and new, high-quality innovative product is what we're going to deliver."

"Bluestar and Apex are extremely talented and capable teams," said outgoing Brookstone CEO Piau Phang Foo, "and they're well positioned to grow the iconic Brookstone brand in airport, online and ever-expanding retail channels."

"Brookstone is a unique brand with strong growth potential," stated Manny Mashouf, CEO of bebe stores. "We are pleased to expand our already-successful relationship with Bluestar Alliance and can see the potential synergies with other brands in their portfolio. This investment, a direct result of our partnership with B. Riley Financial, will create a strong platform for future growth and enhance our ability to generate free cash flow to maximize our dividends to shareholders."

"We are pleased to continue to work closely with Bluestar, and this investment represents our combined efforts to build out bebe stores as an investment vehicle," said Nick Capuano, Chairman of bebe stores. "We will continue to look for opportunities that leverage our tax assets and create value for our shareholders."  

About Bluestar Alliance LLC

Founded by Joseph Gabbay and Ralph Gindi in 2006, Bluestar owns, manages, and markets a portfolio of consumer brands that span across many tiers of distribution from luxury to mass market. This portfolio consists of major department store retail brands including Tahari, Bebe, Kensie, Catherine Malandrino, Nanette Lepore, Joan Vass, Michael Bastian, English Laundry and Limited Too.

The firm's investment mandate is to identify and purchase consumer brand companies where it can leverage the brand equity and expand its current categories to a broader consumer base. To facilitate the overall strategy Bluestar relies on its branding/marketing knowledge, extensive relationships with retail management, strategic partnerships and brand licensing manufacturing entities.

Each brand is uniquely positioned maintaining the brand heritage and equity, considering new categories and current tiers of distribution. Bluestar's current network of international and domestic partners offers the opportunity to take a niche brand to a visible worldwide lifestyle brand. Since its inception, Bluestar has acquired select brands with current retail sales exceeding $2.5 billion.  The company manages a current portfolio of over 250 licensees and a growing branded retail platform of over 100 stores worldwide throughout North America, Europe, Australia, South America, Asia, United Arab Emirates, Middle East, India and Russia.

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SOURCE Bluestar Alliance, LLC