Tuesday, November 10, 2015

The Profit - Denim & Soul (Blues Jean Bar) Update

Tonight on The Profit Marcus Lemonis is in San Francisco, California with hopes of making a deal with Blues Jean Bar.  Blues Jean Bar is a denim retailer with the concept of serving jeans at a bar setting rather than drinks.  The business is suffering from poor management and overly aggressive expansion.  At one point they expanded to 13 stores, but now there are only three stores remaining.

Let's take a look at some information related to Blues Jean Bar as well as what kind of deal was made on the show.


News and Links Related To The Company:
  • Blues Jean Bar was re-branded as Denim & Soul during the episode.  Here is the new Denim & Soul website.  The About Us section of the website says the Courage b (previously on The Profit) owners helped with the transition to the new brand as well.
  • Here is the Blues Jean Bar Facebook Page, which hasn't posted since August.  There is no Denim & Soul one as of writing this.
  • Their old website www.bluesjeanbar.com redirects to a not found website at the moment.
  • Here are the Yelp reviews for each of the locations, which are mostly positive: Chicago Reviews, Dallas Reviews, San Francisco Reviews
  • The Chicago Blues Jean Bar was robbed at knife point in June 2015. (Link)
  • Marcus Lemonis has been promoting a charity blue jeans drive where people donate jeans they no longer wear.  A lot of the businesses Marcus has invested in are participating in the jean drive and if you donate, you receive a 10% discount at that store. (Link with more information)

The Deal From The Episode Plus Post-Show Updates (this will be updated continually):
  • The Deal - Initial offer - $800,000 for 50% of the business to go towards paying vendors and working capital.  Lady countered by asking for $1 million for 40% ownership.  Finally, they were able to settle on $900,000 for 50% of the business with Marcus controlling how the money gets spent.
  • The Denim & Soul website lists 3 current locations (1 in Chicago, 1 in Lake Forest and 1 in San Francisco) and says 3 more are coming soon - (1 in Jacksonville, 1 in Dallas, and 1 in Atlanta). 
  • The Chicago store was closed for about 3 months to remodel and rebrand and reopened in the fall.  Since reopening as Denim & Soul, sales are up 20% to about $120,000 per month.  This store is now a model for the chain Denim & Soul. (Link)
  • UPDATE 11/15/2015 - Expect some announcement soon about a partnership or something between Courage b (season 2) and Denim & Soul.  The Denim & Soul Atlanta site points to the Courage b website (Link) and the Courage b store in Lake Forest is now a Denim & Soul (Link).  Marcus responded "stay tuned" to both of those tweets, so we will probably hear something soon.
  • Denim & Soul is now under the Marcus Lemonis Fashion Group brand.
  • UPDATE 11/2017 - On an update show, Marcus said after the show he bought out Lady Fuller for $500,000 and had to pay off some debts.  Denim & Soul is considered a success by Marcus.


*To see how all of the businesses from The Profit are doing, go to the The Profit Updates page, and also Like us on Facebook or Follow Us on Twitter  to stay up to date with all things involving The Profit.

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