Larry Kestelman’s LK Group has acquired Melbourne-based retail business Brand Collective from Anchorage Capital Partners for an undisclosed amount. Brand Collective holds exclusive licences for global fashion and footwear brands, including Superdry, Clarks and Hush Puppies, and owns several retail brands, including kids’ footwear chain Shoes & Sox, iconic sneaker brand Volley and online discounter Shoe Warehouse. The acquisition comes at an “opportune time” for Brand Collective, according to its CEO Caleb Brown, who will continue to run the business at LK Group with his current leadership team. When Anchorage Capital Partners bought Brand Collective from its previous owner Pacific Brands in 2014, “it was an unloved, unprofitable, orphan company within a large public company”, he told Inside Retail. “The journey that our business has been on with Anchorage Capital over the last six or so years is really one of turnaround and investment into our digital business and into our direct-to-consumer retail business,” Brown said.“The transformation from a broken business to a really good business with great potential is now complete. It’s an opportune time for new owners to turbocharge our growth agenda from a much stronger platform.”Growth mandateShoes & Sox presents one of the biggest growth opportunities in the Brand Collective portfolio, according to Brown.  “There’s no doubt that Shoes & Sox is the market-leading retailer of children’s shoes,” he said. “Our retail footprint does not reflect our market-leading position, so there’s enormous organic growth there through rollouts.”He also sees further room for growth in the Superdry store network.“Our national flagship footprint is not yet complete here in Australia or in New Zealand, so we’re still looking for further sites for organic growth within the Superdry network,” he said. And he noted there’s potential to expand Brand Collective’s existing wholesale partnerships with retailers, such as Myer and Target. “The reality is in our business, we’ve got a finger in every pie, from brand licencing to wholesale to retail to online to marketplace,” Brown said. “We’re in a really fortuitous position where we’re able to engage with a lot of different consumer touchpoints […] That might be on Amazon, it might be on The Iconic, it might be shopping with the brand direct, it might be shopping in a specific brand’s store, it might be shopping in a department store that has an amazing loyalty program,” he said.“I think it’s really the only way to do business in the 21st century, where consumers are so focused on consuming in a way that works for them individually.”In the future, Brand Collective will be looking to acquire new brands that complement its existing portfolio and that it could add value to from an operational perspective. “Our mandate from Larry and his group is very clear, and it’s just to get on with continuing the growth within our business,” he said.Growing retail focusThe deal comes less than a year after Kestelman, who founded the telco and utilities provider Dodo and owns the National Basketball League in addition to several successful property companies, acquired PAS Group out of voluntary administration through his private equity firm Queens Lane Capital. PAS Group owns the Review, Black Pepper, Yarra Trail, Marco Polo and Breakaway retail businesses and holds licenses to popular international brands, including Everlast, Lonsdale and Disney through its Designworks division, which supplies Kmart, Rebel, David Jones. At the time, PAS Group’s turnover was around $200 million. Brand Collective’s annual sales are around $280 million, Brown said. Together, the two businesses have more than 250 bricks-and-mortar stores.