Five months after Donghia abruptly shut down operations and declared bankruptcy, the storied brand is entering a new chapter, with a new owner. On Friday last week, Kravet Inc.was the winning bidder in the Chapter 7 auction of Donghia Inc.—a sale that includes the Donghia brand name, the company’s intellectual and digital property, and its designs, archives and inventory. The deal is expected to close by the end of the week.
“The Donghia brand is distinctive and enduring,” said Cary Kravet, president of Kravet Inc., in a statement. “It stands for the inherent beauty in clean lines and the appreciation for impeccable quality in materials and construction. The Donghia aesthetic and brand market position are fully complementary to our current brands and aesthetic positioning. The look and attitude is wholly additive for us.”
Kravet, which was founded in 1918, has periodically acquired heritage textiles brands throughout its recent history, including Lee Jofa in 1995, GP&J Baker in 2001, and Brunschwig & Fils in 2011. In a conversation with Business of Home, Kravet explained that the Donghia aesthetic and position in the marketplace complement the company’s existing family of flagship brands. “We can leverage our existing showrooms, sales network, marketing talents, product development skills, industry knowledge, relationships, supply chain, warehousing and systems—we can integrate it very well, and yet it gives us something very different in product mix and relevance to the market,” he says. “It’s also a brand that we can become passionate about.”
According to Kravet, the hurdles to bringing a reimagined Donghia line to market are less about logistics and more about brand and product development. “Believe it or not, [the integration] is the easy part,” he says. “The hard part is the softer side—understanding what the brand is and where it should go. That takes a lot of thought, communication, research and understanding.” As a result, the relaunch will take time; Kravet says that the company’s first Donghia collection will likely focus on the brand’s most iconic patterns and pieces—a release that can be folded into existing showrooms while a more robust revamp is developed.