Restoration Hardware introduces children’s line

Restoration Hardware has introduced Baby & Child, a line of products for the little ones that includes apparel, lighting, stroller and security blankets, cribs, play tables and chairs, beds, changing tables, room decor, and toys and playthings.

Of the new line, the company relates on its Web site: “We believe that your design aesthetic shouldn’t end where the nursery begins, we’ve taken the same classics and reinvented them for the little ones in our lives. The same quality craftsmanship and attention to detail. The same luxurious Italian linens and soothing color palette. The same iconic aesthetic that makes us who we are. All in a smaller, sweeter package.”

The retailer that helps consumers upgrade their homes now is going to help the upgrade their baby rooms. The effort is comprehensive, certainly, a turnkey baby operation, so to speak. It will take Restoration Hardware into new categories including layette apparel. It also offers a selection of organic layette apparel and bedding. The Baby & Child operation includes a catalog presentation and a registry. Prices range up to about $1400 for furniture to as little as the $10 range for, for example, shower curtains.

The program is coordinated in several collections, including organics and certainly makes for a handsome presentation. However, retailers have tried to develop upscale baby presentations in the past with limited success.

Not that people won’t spend money on luxurious baby goods. The question is: which people? Parents tend to be or become pretty frugal after a certain point in the whole process of raising kids. A lot of the luxury baby gear is purchased by grandparents, godparents, aunts and uncles, in other words those friends and relatives whose disposable income isn’t overshadowed by the cost of diapers, baby food and education. As Restoration Hardware is something of a DIY operation, one where people shop for their own homes and not for gifts, it may have a particular challenge making an upscale baby program work.

Source: Retailing Today.com

Restoration Hardware Shareholders Approve Buyout

Restoration Hardware Inc. said its shareholders approved selling the company to the private-equity group Catterton Partners for about $179 million. The company said Thursday that more than 99% of the votes cast at the meeting were in favor of the deal. Catterton Partners will buy the outstanding shares of the company for about $4.50 per share in cash. Restoration Hardware said the deal should be completed next week. The retailer said it also reached a preliminary agreement for the settlement of a shareholder complaint filed in a California state court against the company, its directors, Catterton Partners and certain shareholders participating in the acquisition. Under terms of the settlement, the suit will be dismissed with prejudice and the company will establish a fund of $3.7 million to be paid to shareholders when the acquisition deal closes. The company said it settled the case to "expedite the closing" of the acquisition.

Source: Chain Store Age