Case 35 — Aritzia · Brian Hill · 2016

Your investor needs an exit and your growth needs capital. Do you go public, sell the company, or find a way to stay private?

You founded a Vancouver boutique in 1984 and turned it into a chain of about 75 stores that sells only brands you own, at a price between the mall and the designer floor. Revenue is around C$540 million and growing near 20% a year, with margins most apparel retailers would envy. Eleven years ago you sold a majority of the company to Berkshire Partners, a Boston private-equity firm, and stayed as chief executive; eleven years is long for such a fund, and they want liquidity. You have a dozen boutiques in the United States, treated so far as an experiment, and a conviction that the American market could be several times the size of Canada. E-commerce is four years old. The last big Canadian retail IPO was years ago and the market's memory of Lululemon's stumbles is fresh.

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