Mothers Works Adopts iMaternity

Mothers Work, Inc. (Philadelphia) has announced an agreement to acquire iMaternity (Chicago), which operates 170 Dan Howard and Mothertime maternity clothing stores and the online iMaternity store. The deal is estimated to be worth around $27 million.

iMaternity operates 170 Dan Howard and Mothertime maternity clothing stores and the online iMaternity.com store. Mothers Work, which operates 639 stores and 132 leased departments under the Motherhood Maternity, A Pea in the Pod and Mimi Maternity nameplates, said it expects to add $40 to $45 million of annual revenue in the first year.

“This acquisition is an important step in our strategy to increase our market share in the maternity apparel market,” said Mothers Works founder, president and coo Rebecca Matthias. “The addition of iMaternity's stores will allow us to serve new geographic markets, and also allow us to expand our middle price point business currently served by our Mimi Maternity chain.” Mathias said she expects to convert each ofthe purchased locations into one of Mothers Works'three existing chains.