OUR STORY
Arthur and Stuart began working together in 1987 shortly after the stock market crash in October. Armed with experience, drive, a strong desire to work together, a little financial freedom, a new Apple Mac with Quark Express, a laser printer, a piece of plywood and a couple of sawhorses they got to work.
Arthur had just completed a contract with the new owners of Warnaco, Inc. A group backed by Drexel Burnham outbid Arthur and his partners who were trying to take the publicly held Warnaco private in a management led LBO. Arthur stayed on for one year to help with the transition and then decided it was time to move on.
Stuart, who graduated from NYU's Stern school of business a few years earlier, went to work for Liz Claiborne during it's high growth startup years and then joined forces with the largest knitwear manufacturer in the world, Comitex Knitters. Comitex decided it was time to sell directly to US retailers instead of to buying offices. As Arthur was stepping out of Warnaco he was watching, with equal interest, Ollie North getting grilled for the Iran-Contra affair, and Stuart shipping over 600,000 units a week on a three week turnaround from Hong Kong to The Limited, Inc. As he has said on a few occasions "if you weren't my son, I would never have believed it".
The first step in the partnership was to launch a business only publication reporting on the retail, wholesale and textile industries. They headed to Columbia University and hired Dr. Geoffrey Moore, the world renowned expert in leading indicator analysis, and had a leading indicator for retail sales developed. This along with a bevy of other facts became the de facto information provider to the industry and picked up a healthy Wall Street following along the way.
Publishing led to consulting, and consulting was heavily biased to turnarounds since the wave of 1980s LBO's were floundering. After seven years together, Stuart bought the golf businesses with a partner from bankrupt Crystal Brands Inc., and Arthur set out to turn around a few high profile companies as CEO, Chairman and investor. Achieving a series of successes individually in a variety of different industries, they decided to collaborate again and bring to bear their expertise and capital. This time there's one more skill set that is appropriately leveraged, and that is analytics and digital marketing. The expertise comes in the form of a third generation, Jake Warshaw, who works with some of the most respected digital marketers and e-commerce companies today. Arthur lives in Western MA, and Jake and Stuart live in Burlington, VT.