The Lancashire owner of retro trainer favourite Gola has been acquired by the US arm of Japanese multinational by Marubeni Corporation.
Marubeni Consumer Platform US (MCPU) has acquired Rossendale-based Jacobson Group for an undisclosed sum. Jacobson also owns footwear brands Lotus, Ravel, and Frank Wright, and is a licensee of two more retro fashion mainstays – Dunlop and Lonsdale.
Jacobson Group has evolved from a family-founded business in the early eighties to today’s model, which owns and distributes footwear and bags internationally. The group has relationships with retailers including John Lewis, Next, Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Selfridges, Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s.
The Gola brand dates back to 1905 and has been associated with some of the biggest names in sport from the worlds of football, rugby, tennis, athletics and boxing, as well as becoming a favourite of floppy haired, jangly guitared indie rock hopefuls across the nation.
MCPU is a division of the Tokyo-based Marubeni Corporation, a global, integrated business founded in 1858 that operates across a range of sectors, including lifestyle, food and agriculture, chemicals, energy, metals and mineral resources, power and infrastructure.
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Founded in 2023, MCPU is part of Marubeni Corporation’s Next Generation Corporate Development Division, which leads investments and M&A in the global consumer sector. It is run by Shana Randhava, whose title is president, and whose mission is to build and scale consumer platforms in high-growth categories in the US.
Under the new agreement, Jacobson Group will be integrated into the Marubeni lifestyle platform alongside RGB Brands, which Marubeni acquired last year. RGB is a management platform for lifestyle brands and the owner of Dearfoams, Baggallini, and Columbus Product Group. RGB Brands will serve as the platform engine, and going forward RGB, under president and chief executive Bob Mullaney, will run the operations, logistics and distribution for Jacobson Group and future brands that join the MCPU lifestyle platform.
The move is intended to help fuel growth across the UK and US, as well as other international markets, for Jacobson Group.
In November, RGB also announced an agreement in principle to acquire the global slipper license for Clarks and the US slipper license for Timberland from Green Market Services.
Jacobson Group, which employs around 80 to 90 staff, will continue to be led by its existing leadership team of Tony Evans, Gary Shutt, Jonathan Jacobson and Donna Hill.
Harvey Jacobson, founder and executive chairman of Jacobson Group, plans to retire once the deal has closed.
Jacobson said he was “hugely proud of everything the group has achieved since my brother and I launched the business in 1982. It has been a privilege to steward these iconic British footwear brands. As we look to the future, it is clear that Marubeni and RGB offer the ideal platform, vision, and long-term commitment to take Jacobson’s brands into their next phase of growth.”
CEO Evans added: “[The deal is] a major milestone for the business, and I look forward to working closely with the RGB and Marubeni teams to drive growth across the globe.”
Gola ad image: Gola/Jay Mawson
