Qurate Retail Group which owns QVC, HSN and Cornerstone Brands, has sold Zulily to Regent, an investment firm headquartered in Los Angeles.
Zulily which had an operation in the UK in the 2000s, targets young parents with offers on a wide range of brands spanning children’s apparel, home products, and toys for indoor and outdoor play. Regent owns consumer brands which include Playtex, Sassoon, La Senza, Club Monaco and Escata.
Commenting on the sale, David Rawlinson, president & CEO of Qurate Retail Group (QRG )said: “We are in the midst of a turnaround at Qurate Retail. This divestiture will allow our management team to better focus on our core video commerce assets QVC and HSN and Cornerstone Brands, while preserving liquidity to further strengthen our balance sheet.”
The terms of the deal were not disclosed but are likely to have fallen well short of the US$2.4 billion which QRG parent Liberty Interactive paid for Zulily in August 2015. QRG is majority owned by Liberty chairman John Malone.
Zulily, which operates on a drop shipping mode, was founded in 2009 with an initial focus on children’s apparel. It went public in 2013 at a valuation of US $2.6 billion. QRG experienced a 17 per cent fall in Zulily’s Q1/23 revenue which came in at US$192 million which was an improvement over its Q4 performance which showed a US$43 million operating loss. This was explained by the business experiencing lower demand along with a fall in its shipping and handling revenues as customers reduced their spending. Headcount had been cut back with a view to achieving an annual US$14m saving, with US£11m coming in 2023.
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