Chinese golf apparel retailer snaps up Cerruti 1881 and Kent & Curwen

Biem.L.Fdlkk Garment Co., a Guangzhou-based firm best known for designing, marketing and distributing golf apparel to customers throughout China, has acquired the global trademarks of Cerruti 1881 and Kent & Curwen.

It is reported that the Chinese company paid the equivalent of $62.18m for the global trademark rights of Cerruti 1881, and $41.45m for Kent & Curwen.

Both brands were previously owned by Trinity Ltd., who also acquired Gieves & Hawkes in 2012 before Trinity was subject to a winding-up petition for debt in September 2021. Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group snapped up Gieves & Hawkes in November 2022.

Cerruti 1881 was the victim of cuts at parent company Trinity, a knock-on effect from large scale cost-cutting at Trinity’s owners Shandong Ruyi.

Kent & Curwen is originally a British menswear retailer, founded in 1926 in London by Eric Kent and Dorothy Curwen. The company first made its name by producing and supplying club ties to universities including Cambridge and Oxford. It also became widely associated with making cricket jumpers from the 1930s onwards.

In recent years - from 2015 to 2019 - David Beckham partnered with Kent & Curwen to appeal to a younger crowd than the brand’s more traditional customer base, with more contemporary sporty styles modelled by Beckham himself. However, Beckham excited the partnership in 2020 after losses of several million pounds were reported under the Shandong Ruyi ownership. The brand ceased trading a year later.

Debt ridden Chinese manufacturing giant Shandong Ruyi has been seeking to offload some of its prized assets since the end of 2021. Public traded golf apparel retailer Biem.L.Fdlkk, which was founded in 2003, reportedly has strong distribution across shopping malls and airports in China, which could mean a new lease of life for Kent & Curwen and Cerruti 1881.