Business description of G-III-APPAREL-GROUP-LTD-DE from last 10-k form

BUSINESS.

Unless the context otherwise requires, “G-III”, “us”, “we” and “our” refer to G-III Apparel Group, Ltd. and its subsidiaries. References to fiscal years refer to the year ended or ending on January 31 of that year. For example, our fiscal year ended January 31, 2012 is referred to as “fiscal 2012”.

Overview

G-III designs, manufactures and markets an extensive range of apparel, including outerwear, dresses, sportswear, women’s suits and women’s performance wear, as well as luggage and women’s handbags, small leather goods and cold weather accessories. We sell our products under our own proprietary brands, which include Andrew Marc, Marc New York and Marc Moto, licensed brands and private retail labels. We provide high quality apparel under recognized brands to a cross section of leading retailers such as Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom, Lord & Taylor, The Bon-Ton Stores, Dillards, JC Penney, Belk and Kohl’s. We distribute our products through a diverse mix and a large number of retailers at a variety of price points, as well as through our own retail stores.

As of January 31, 2012, we operated 139 retail stores, of which 135 are outlet stores operated under the Wilsons Leather name and 4 are outlet stores operated under our Andrew Marc brand. During fiscal 2011, we formed a joint venture with The Camuto Group to open and operate footwear and accessory outlet stores under the name “Vince Camuto.” The joint venture opened the first Vince Camuto outlet store in April 2011 and, as of January 31, 2012, 11 of these stores were in operation.

We have expanded our portfolio of proprietary and licensed brands through acquisitions and by entering into license agreements for new brands or for additional product categories.

Selling products under well-known licensed brands is an important part of our strategy. We have licenses to produce branded fashion apparel under the Calvin Klein, Kenneth Cole, Cole Haan, Guess?, Tommy Hilfiger, Levi’s, Dockers, Jessica Simpson, Ellen Tracy, Kensie, Mac & Jac, Jones New York, Sean John and Nine West brands, among others. We also have sports licenses with the National Football League, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, Touch by Alyssa Milano and over 100 U.S. colleges and universities.

G-III sells outerwear, dresses and handbags under our own Andrew Marc, Marc New York and Marc Moto brands and has licensed these brands to select third parties in certain product categories. Our other owned brands include, among others, Jessica Howard, Eliza J, Black Rivet, G-III, G-III Sports by Carl Banks and Winlit. We also work with a diversified group of retailers, such as JC Penney, Kohl’s and Express in developing private label product lines.

We have acquired businesses that have broadened our product offerings, expanded our ability to serve different tiers of distribution and added a retail component to our business. Our acquisitions are part of our strategy to expand our product offerings and increase the portfolio of proprietary and licensed brands that we offer through different tiers of retail distribution. We believe that our two most recent additions, Andrew Marc and the Wilsons outlet business, both of which were completed in fiscal 2009, leverage our core strength in outerwear and provide us with new avenues for growth. We also believe that these acquisitions complement our other licensed brands, G-III owned brands and private label programs.

We operate our business in three segments, wholesale licensed products, wholesale non-licensed products and retail operations. The wholesale licensed products segment includes sales of products under brands licensed by us from third parties. The wholesale non-licensed products segment principally includes sales of products under our own brands and private label brands. The retail operations segment consists almost entirely of our Wilsons outlet stores, and beginning in the second half of fiscal 2012, a limited number of Andrew Marc outlet stores. See Note K to our Consolidated Financial Statements for financial information with respect to these segments.

G-III Apparel Group, Ltd. is a Delaware corporation that was formed in 1989. We and our predecessors have conducted our business since 1974.