SKYE Associates LLC is negotiating to acquire two online retailers – one a shoe site, the other intimate apparel – in a deal it hopes to close by April 1. The deal represents a potential total of $7.5 million in new revenue for the Bethesda-based e-commerce company.
In addition to the possible acquisitions,
SKYE is launching print catalogues for 14 different e-commerce clients. The catalogues are scheduled to be published March 15, with a total print run of 750,000 catalogues. Of the 14 catalogues, one is for an existing client, SimplySoles; the rest are for new clients like Lori’s Designer Shoes, BlankNYC and Henry & Belle.
“We’re in an expansion mode,” says Adam Hanin, president and founder of the private company that focuses on women’s fashions.
Last year,
SKYE raised $2.5 million in its first-ever financing round. Hanin says the funding was intended to enhance its current products and service, and for acquisitions.
SKYE, founded in 2007, manages e-commerce for single brands and multi-chain retail operations. The company handles everything from producing print catalogues to marketing, photography to customer service.
Among
SKYE’s clients are
House of Harlow and the Nicole Richie brand, as well as five women’s shoe stores.
SKYE also owns six online storefronts:
SimplySoles.com,
PinkMascara.com,
DesignsbyStephene.com,
FantasyJewelryBox.com,
Yoga-Clothing.com and
TheHipChick.com.
“We started with one multi-brand storefront, and then acquired others,” says Hanin. “This [funding] give us the ability to find sites that used to be doing well but aren’t now, and then enhance them.”
Hanin began his career in retail while a journalism student at the University of Maryland, where he started a company called Campus Outfitters that sold school uniforms. That venture eventually resulted in 10 retail stores.
SKYE Associates has 30 full-time employees. In 2013, it did $15 million in sales, an increase from $9 million in 2012 and $6 million in 2011.