On the 13th, Jun Co., Ltd. (headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo) announced that it had acquired all shares and trademark rights of SOPH LLC (headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo), which operates SOPHNET., Uniform Experiment, and F.C.R.B.
In conjunction with this, Jun Sasaki, CEO, will become Chairman of SOPH. Designer Hirofumi Kiyonaga will continue to serve as CEO of SOPH. On the same day, fashion website honeyee.com published a conversation between the two companies about the acquisition, taking the unusual approach of explaining the background and their thoughts.
Sasaki said, "SOPH has the potential to become a global brand. I would like to work together to build the foundation for manufacturing and the sales network." Kiyonaga said, "We have 14 stores in Japan and overseas, but we thought we needed a partner somewhere in anticipation of further growth in the future. Sasaki will be joining as chairman, but the rest of the structure will remain the same as before. It would be interesting if this initiative could spark the creation of a new fashion conglomerate."