Jonathan Adler’s eponymous brand has been acquired. The buyer is Consortium Brand Partners, the consumer investment company that owns the Reese Witherspoon–founded fashion label Draper James and the millennial-centric athletic wear company Outdoor Voices. Following the deal, Adler himself will stay on as the company’s chief creative officer. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“I started this business quite by accident 30 years ago as a potter. I imagined a life of penury, hawking my wares at rain-soaked craft fairs every weekend,” Adler tells Business of Home. “I find myself 30 years later having led the American dream, and now I have a platform with these incredible new partners to continue to crank it up and make incredible new stuff.”
The deal marks the second time that a major outside investor has gotten involved with Adler’s multifaceted business. In 2008, private equity firm GF Capital purchased a large stake in the company for an undisclosed sum and, over the past decade-plus, considerably grew the brand (according to The Wall Street Journal, Adler’s business generates around $150 million in annual revenue). Though the financial rigors of private equity ownership are not always a natural fit for a creative as restless as Adler, he describes the partnership as a fruitful one.
“For me, the art precedes the business, and any business that I do is purely in service of my creative goals. That sounds sort of Pollyannaish, but it’s sincere,” he says. “We’ve built this business: 10 stores; our e-commerce site, which continues to grow double digits and is doing brilliantly; plus wholesale, licensing and interior design. The more true I stay to my idiosyncratic, very personal aesthetic, the more success we have. My challenge as a designer is trying to remember that.”
Launched in 2022, Consortium Brand Partners is a relatively new player in the specialized world of consumer brand rollups. However, its team brings serious pedigree in the field—its co-founders started Marquee Brands, the holding company that owns Martha Stewart Omnimedia, Sur La Table and, as of this week, Laura Ashley, among others. Over the past 18 months, Consortium has acquired Draper James and Outdoor Voices in quick succession. For the Adler deal, it brought in manufacturing and distribution giant American Exchange Group as a minority partner.
The appeal of Adler’s business was twofold, says Consortium Brand Partners co-founder and managing partner Cory M. Baker. First, style and name recognition. “If I asked you to name five iconic home brands, I think [most people would] have trouble getting to five … and there’s no question Jonathan Adler is one of them,” he says. “It’s color, it’s excitement, it’s flair. It’s modern American glamour.”
Next, the business opportunity. During Covid, Baker saw a natural retrenchment among brands like Adler’s, which focused their efforts on best-selling categories and direct-to-consumer sales—moving away from expansion and toward revenue streams that a company can control directly. Now, he argues, it’s time to go big: “Look at all these categories that aren’t available at retail and department stores—look at the opportunity to get into true home textiles, into tabletop, into outdoor living.”
Baker also sees an avenue to develop products at a more accessible price point. “I have spoken to a lot of people who say, ‘Oh, I love Jonathan, and I bought this incredible couch from my living room, but I wish I could afford to do my entire house like that.’ Well, that’s an opportunity,” he says. “You’re going to see Jonathan Adler in more countries, more categories and more pricing distribution opportunities.”
Adler is also in an expansive mood. “I think we could have a greater dinnerware, tabletop presence. Right now, I’m looking at walls that have been painted with somebody else’s paint and I’m thinking, ‘What the hell is going on here?’ So there’s a lot more stuff to test,” he says. “My dream would be that you could live in a home that looks unimpeachably chic and curated and eclectic—and that [when] you turn over each and every object in your chic, curated, eclectic home, it has a Jonathan Adler sticker on it.”
