Coldwater Creek has completed its purchase of Soft Surroundings, a women’s clothing and accessories retailer that filed for bankruptcy protection in September 2023. The newly combined retailer has selected the Chief Returns Officer solution from Newmine, which has a predictive analytics functionality that will help the retailer quickly analyze and take corrective actions on why customers return merchandise.
“Returns are a major focus for our brands,” said David Walde, CEO at Coldwater Creek and Soft Surroundings in a statement. “Newmine’s innovative solution enables our brands to proactively reduce returns leading to greater sales and profitability.”
As part of its restructuring agreement, Soft Surroundings closed its brick-and-mortar stores, but it has continued to operate as an online DTC retailer. Gordon Brothers advised on the sale to Coldwater Creek and provided Soft Surroundings with a $17 million term loan to pursue a sale process and $18 million in debtor-in-possession financing for its reorganization. The firm had previously supported the completion of Soft Surroundings’ inventory transition to a Mexican-based third-party logistics warehouse service.
“In pursuing the acquisition of Soft Surroundings’ direct-to-consumer business, we greatly benefitted from Gordon Brothers’ partnership over the last few months, their expertise and all-encompassing, tailor-made solution,” said Walde in a statement. “They not only provided capital, but the guidance and expertise needed to acquire the business through the company’s bankruptcy proceeding at an accelerated pace, thereby saving jobs, maximizing value, and working with all parties to ultimately change the lens in how we had initially approached the opportunity.”
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