page_title: Tommy Hilfiger (company)
section_title: Overseas growth and Apax Partners acquisition (2000s)
hierarchical_section_title: Tommy Hilfiger (company) / History / Overseas growth and Apax Partners acquisition (2000s)
caption_attribution_description: English: Tommy Hilfiger at Fairview Mall
context_page_description: Tommy Hilfiger, formerly known as Tommy Hilfiger Corporation and Tommy Hilfiger Inc., is an American premium clothing brand, manufacturing apparel, footwear, accessories, fragrances and home furnishings. The company was founded in 1985, and today is sold in department stores and over 2000 free-standing retail stores in 100 countries. In 2006, private equity firm Apax Partners acquired Tommy Hilfiger for approximately $1.6 billion, and in May 2010, PVH Corp. bought the company. Daniel Grieder was appointed CEO in July 2014, while founder Tommy Hilfiger remains the company’s principal designer, leading the design teams and overseeing the entire creative process. Global sales in retail through the brand in 2013 were US $6.4 billion, and $6.7 billion in 2014.
context_section_description: Women's intimate apparel was introduced in 2001. After sales and net income faltered in 2001, the company's sales in 2002 totaled $1.87 billion. Overall between 2000 and 2009, sales slipped from around $1.9 billion to $700 million. During the same time period, however, Hilfiger’s European sales steadily rose to $1.13 billion. In 2003, Hilfiger executive Fred Gehring and Hilfiger decided to further invest in the brand's growing overseas audience by re-focusing on the brand’s original style, “classic American cool,” and designing the clothes out of New York City. Gehring also adapted the business model to suit European retail culture, pursuing partnerships with European department stores and with smaller boutiques, signing 4,500 of them in 15 countries.  Hilfiger also strove to retain the designer brand exclusivity of the Hilfiger label by signing a deal to distribute the best-selling Hilfiger lines at Macy's only. 
  Hilfiger has endorsed products such as True Star is a fragrance, which was released in 2004 with Beyoncé Knowles as poster girl. True Star would go on to win a FiFi Award for Best New Commercial Fragrance. By 2004, the Tommy Hilfiger Corporation company had revenues of $1.8 approximately billion and 5,400 employees. In 2006, Tommy Hilfiger sold Tommy Hilfiger Inc. for $1.6 billion, or $16.80 a share, to Apax Partners, a private investment company. After the acquisition Gehring assumed control of the American headquarters of Tommy Hilfiger as well as Europe. Gehring and Hilfiger narrowed their focus in the United States to the profitable core sportswear line, and U.S. sales began to rise in 2010.
caption: Tommy Hilfiger storefront inside a mall in 2014
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