Cooler fall temperatures are now hitting Orange County, but things are starting to heat up inside the offices of swimwear manufacturer Manhattan Beachwear Inc.
The Cypress-based company, which has an estimated $700 million in retail sales, in September promoted Lindsay Shumlas from chief financial officer to chief executive, succeeding Kevin Mahoney.
After three months on the job, Shumlas is making changes. Besides expanding sales to Australia and New Zealand, she plans to take the company back to its roots.
“We’ve had multiple acquisitions; we’ve tried activewear; we’ve tried other lines,” Shumlas said. “I want to focus purely on swimwear—that’s our strength.”
“We are a wholesale business that has specialized in swimwear [and] my campaign is to empower women because I want women to feel confident. I think that’s what we can offer and differentiates us from our competitors.”
Women have a lot of options as the swimwear market is seeing a wave of new brands popping up each year from L.A.-based line Ookioh, which garnered attention when it launched this year for using 80% recycled materials, to Laguna Beach-based active swimwear brand Revly.
Shumlas said her strategy will give the company a leg up by focusing on meeting customer’s needs and making women feel confident.
“I watch the competition pretty closely,” she said. “I’m not focused on trying to chase what they’re doing because it’s important to focus on our customer and ensuring that we’re delivering her the best product, at the best price, at the best fit—all of the things that she’s looking for.”
The company designs, manufactures and markets swimsuits and resort wear. It has five proprietary brands in its portfolio, including its best-selling line La Blanca, and about 15 private-label and licensed swimwear lines for companies such as Polo Ralph Lauren, Kenneth Cole and Trina Turk Swim and Spa.
It also inked a deal this summer to design and distribute women’s swimwear for Vernon-based fashion label BCBG Max Azria and its BCBG Generation line.
Its swimsuits are sold at more than 7,000 specialty and department stores such as Nordstrom and Diane’s Beachwear.
Its clothes are often worn by models on the covers of major women magazines like Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Fitness and Allure.
Sun and Sand
Shumlas joined the company three years ago after serving as chief financial officer of Indiana-based children’s clothing company Matilda Jane Clothing.
The Michigan native said it never crossed her mind to move to California until the opportunity with Manhattan Beachwear was presented.
She recalls how excited her two kids, age nine and 12, were when first visiting the beach in OC, adding that they now participate in the Junior Lifeguard Program.
Shumlas said what attracted her to the company was its 40-year history in the swimwear business.
“I didn’t have experience in swimwear, but I had experience in apparel and it was an opportunity to progress in terms of being a CFO at a larger company than where I was at before,” she said.
Shumlas has quickly moved up the ranks becoming chief operating officer last year and now chief executive.
The company faced some headwinds such as challenges with its warehouse management system a few years ago and product delivery delays last year.
That experience shaped Shumlas’ plans on how to take the company forward.
“For a business like Manhattan Beachwear that’s had some historical challenges, my strategy is all about keeping promises to our customers, to each other, to our employees and to our shareholders.”
The company ranked seventh on this year’s Business Journal’s list of OC’s largest apparel companies, based on local employee count. It now has 250 employees but the manufacturer said it’s looking to add staff across all divisions from warehouse distribution positions to a new CFO, to backfill Shumlas.
She said boosting employee morale is another key focus, from bringing in food trucks to its 75,000-square-foot office building to plans for a more open office space with communal areas for employees to socialize and take breaks.
Course Correction
The company has been through many changes over the years after founder Allan Colvin sold a majority stake to Cleveland-based private equity firm Linsalata Capital Partners Inc. in 2010 for what reports pegged to be somewhere between $20 million and $50 million.
Linsalata Capital, a lower middle market buyout firm founded in 1984, has made 113 acquisitions with a combined transactional value of $4 billion. Founder Frank Linsalata is well known in northern Ohio.
Later in 2010, Manhattan Beachwear bought L.A.-based swimsuit maker Apparel Ventures Inc., owner of the La Blanca brand, for an undisclosed sum.
Investments have continued. It completed the modernization of its 191,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution center in Buena Park last year, which it signed a lease for in 2014.
The swimsuit maker also entered the European market last year through a partnership with German distributor F1-Generation GmbH, which also works with Irvine-based P.J. Salvage. Its private and licensed labels are now carried in 23 countries.
During Mahoney’s two-year tenure, there was also a bigger push into women’s active and lifestyle apparel with plans to turn La Blanca into a lifestyle brand.
Shumlas is changing course, saying the company no longer manufactures activewear.
“I’m focused purely on the core—swimwear,” she said. “Any new line of business or segment just pulls us away from really focusing on what we’re best at. We’ve been around for 40 years because that is our core competency.”
Her focus will be on deepening its relationships with wholesale accounts to drive sales and more importantly, making sure customers are offered a broader range of fit styles in trendy, yet modern, designs.
“My campaign is to empower women in swimwear,” she said. “That requires us to have the best fit [and] different fit solutions in a full size range to make sure she feels confident [from] chasing her kids at the pool and feeling comfortable or sitting in a lounge chair relaxing for the first time in weeks.”
