Dive Brief:
- Marking another acquisition for the company, FullBeauty Brands has acquired size-inclusive intimates brand Cuup, according to a company press release. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
- Cuup will be added to FullBeauty’s digital mall by the fall, which currently features other brands within its portfolio such as Eloquii, June+Vie and Swimsuits for All. Insights and data from Cuup will enable FullBeauty to better inform how it designs its new digital mall.
- The transaction allows FullBeauty to continue its growth in the intimates category with a focus on reaching a new customer demographic. The company said in details emailed to Retail Dive that FullBeauty has an annual revenue of $1 billion and serves 5 million active customers.
Dive Insight:
FullBeauty is hoping to capitalize on Cuup’s core customer base to expand its reach to a younger demographic.
“We are thrilled to welcome Cuup and the Cuup team to the FullBeauty Brands family, as we continue to grow as the leading destination for great fitting, quality, on-trend, size-inclusive apparel,” Jim Fogarty, FullBeauty Brands CEO, said in a statement. “As an innovative, high-growth brand seeking to disrupt the intimates category, Cuup is an exciting addition to the FullBeauty Brands portfolio. Cuup enables us to further tap into the growing intimates addressable market, extends our reach among a new demographic of customers, and expands our offerings to our existing customers. As we look to scale and grow, Cuup will bring excitement to our new digital mall.”
Cuup is a digitally native intimates brand with a special focus on the large bra cup market. The brand in 2021 debuted its first swimwear collection, conducting more than 100 fittings on 25 different women’s bodies over the course of 20 months to determine more accurate fits. In March, Cuup entered into brick-and-mortar retail through a wholesale deal with Bloomingdale’s at its 59th Street flagship store in New York City, bringing its virtual fitting service offline.
FullBeauty’s latest acquisition comes just a few months after it bought plus-size fashion brand Eloquii. The apparel brand was purchased by FullBeauty from Walmart for an undisclosed amount, contributing to a series of selloffs from the mass retailer.
“We always had Eloquii on a list of brands we would be interested in and had a lot of respect for the brand,” FullBeauty Brands CEO Jim Fogarty previously told Retail Dive. “If you look at what they’re all about, it’s a similar basic mission to what we’re about ... They, like our brands, are not only just bringing [inclusive] sizes, but they also obsess about fit and our teams do as well.”
FullBeauty previously went through bankruptcy over the course of just 24 hours in 2019, which gave ownership to a group of lenders and cut down $900 million in debt. Focused on growth, the company won a $41 million bid to acquire plus-size apparel brand Catherines in 2020.
