My guest for this podcast is Gilbert Harrison and he recently released a new book entitled “Deal Junkie: A Half-Century of Deals that Brought the Biggest U.S. Retail and Apparel Companies to Answer the Moment and Prepare for the Future.”  Gilbert is the Chairman of Harrison Group, Inc. and  the Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Financo, Inc. He founded Financo in 1971 in Philadelphia, where it became one of the leading independent middle market firms in the country, developing its reputation primarily in the retail and consumer industries.

In this interview, we speak about his days of deal-making, his rise and leadership in different fields like retail, apparel, beauty, footwear and other merchandising and consumer-related companies.

If you want to know more about Gilbert Harrison, please click here to be directed to his website.

THE BOOK

Bringing public and private companies to the bargaining table to merge, sell or divest themselves is an intense high-wire act—and Gilbert Harrison’s Deal Junkie is an in-depth account of how a great practitioner of the art form has pulled off these kinds of deals over the course of five-plus decades in the business.

If it were your job to bring a company to the bargaining table so it could merge, sell or divest, you had better have the stamina and guts as well as an intricate knowledge of how the human mind operates. Negotiating these kinds of deals is not for the faint of heart. But for over fifty years, one merchandising giant after another—Marshalls, TJ Maxx, Home Depot, Nine West, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Sears, CVS, The Limited, Dollar Tree, Eddie Bauer, Interparfums, Jeffrey Stores, and Jos A. Bank, to name a few—have relied on Gilbert Harrison to help them forge just these kinds of deals. Have they all been signed, sealed, and delivered? No, that’s not how the game works, and getting many of these deals negotiated is exactly that—a game. In all deals, nobody knows who to believe or not to believe, and what a company’s objectives are. But whether buying, selling or divesting, it has been Harrison’s job to try and figure out the secret competing interests of a company and to get those deals across the finish line.

Deal Junkie is the story of Gilbert Harrison’s rise to becoming one of the true lions in the field of retail, apparel, beauty, footwear and other merchandising and consumer-related companies.

THE AUTHOR

Gilbert W. Harrison is the Chairman of Harrison Group, Inc. and a Senior Advisor in restructuring for GLC Advisors & Co. Mr. Harrison is the Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Financo, Inc. He founded Financo in 1971 in Philadelphia, where it became one of the leading independent middle market firms in the country, developing its reputation primarily in the retail and consumer industries. Over its 45 year history, Financo has expanded its service offerings significantly, developing resources beyond its traditional merger and acquisition and divestiture work into consulting, principal investments, restructuring and other services relating to the retail and consumer industries. As one of the industry’s premier dealmakers, Mr. Harrison has been involved in orchestrating over 100 merger, acquisition and divestiture deals for retail, apparel, footwear and cosmetic clients.

 

You may also refer to the transcripts below for the full transciption (not edited) of the interview.

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