Honey Birdette founder Eloise Monaghan making waves in Playboy territory
Better than an invite to the Playboy Mansion, the woman who stared Honey Birdette in Brisbane 15 years ago will pocket $47m in cash and $20m in shares from the deal.
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The founder of the Honey Birdette, established in Brisbane 15 years ago, has scored a life-changing deal with the sale of the lingerie and sex toy shop chain to Playboy.
Eloise Monaghan is set to relocate from to Los Angeles to take up a key role with the iconic Hugh Hefner-founded global media and lifestyle empire PLBY Group.
Australian retail billionaire Brett Blundy, who controls Honey Birdette, sold it this week for about $443m.
The deal is going to net Mr Blundy, who also controls listed brands including Lovisa and Adairs, about $195m in cash for his almost 62 per cent Honey Birdette stake, along with about $80m in the PLBY stock.
Ms Monaghan, who is in LA this week for the deal’s announcement, will net $47.2m in cash and about $20m in PLBY stock from the sale of the company she co-founded in 2006 and which Blundy had the foresight to buy into five years later. The first store was in West End, in inner Brisbane.
Ms Monaghan, 45, will continue to run Honey Birdette, but will also take on what PLBY Group boss Ben Kohn has described as a key role with PLBY.
“I’ve been enormously impressed by Eloise,” Mr Kohn said of the Aussie businesswoman, who is set to open new Honey Birdette stores in Dallas, Miami and Pennsylvania’s Scottsdale later this year.
As deal negotiations have unfolded, recent weeks have seen Monaghan, who now lives in Sydney, visiting New York and Las Vegas.
The relocation will be something of an upheaval for Ms Monaghan and her wife Natalie Monaghan, who mid-last year forked out just over $3m for a penthouse apartment in inner city Surry Hills in Sydney
The home is in Natalie’s name and is mortgaged to ANZ.
Still, if new boss Mr Kohn’s gushing about his new recruit and her brand – he calls her a “creative force” – are any guide, the international relocation will be worth it. “We share the same ethos on pleasure in people’s lives,” Mr Kohn said.
Ms Monaghan said when she founded Honey Birdette 15 years ago, her ambition was to build a brand for women, by women.
“(I wanted) a brand that would serve as a platform for confidence and sexual and body empowerment,” she said. “I am immensely proud of everything we’ve accomplished – with 60 thriving stores across three countries – powered by 350 fierce female ambassadors.
“I’m thrilled to join Ben (Kohn) and the whole PLBY Group team on a mission to build a lifestyle of pleasure for all.”
Originally published as Honey Birdette founder Eloise Monaghan making waves in Playboy territory
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