LONDON — Marubeni Consumer Platform US is kicking off 2026 with the acquisition of Britain’s Jacobson Group, owner of footwear brands including Gola, Lotus, Ravel, and Frank Wright, and a licensee of Dunlop and Lonsdale.
The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
MCPU is a division of the Tokyo-based Marubeni Corporation, a global, integrated business founded in 1858 that operates across a range of sectors, including lifestyle, food and agriculture, chemicals, energy, metals and mineral resources, power and infrastructure.
Founded in 2023, MCPU is part of Marubeni Corporation’s Next Generation Corporate Development Division, which leads investments and M&A in the global consumer sector. It is run by Shana Randhava, whose title is president, and whose mission is to build and scale consumer platforms in high-growth categories in the U.S.
An ad for Gola sneakers.
JAY MAWSON
Randhava was most recently senior vice president, New Incubation Ventures at The Estée Lauder Cos., where she worked on a host of deals including the acquisition of Kilian Paris, and strategic investments in brands including Haeckels, Kiki World and the Chinese brands Melt Season, and Code Mint.
Jacobson Group is a family-founded business that owns and distributes footwear and bags internationally. The group has relationships with retailers including John Lewis, Next, Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Selfridges, Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s.
Randhava said the acquisition of Jacobson Group “advances the platform architecture we’ve been building. It comes at a particularly exciting time, and is fueled by Gola’s rapidly expanding market resonance. This marks a defining step in establishing the MCPU lifestyle platform as a scalable, multibrand ecosystem.”
Under the new agreement, Jacobson Group will be integrated into the Marubeni lifestyle platform alongside RGB Brands, which Marubeni acquired last year. RGB is a management platform for lifestyle brands and the owner of Dearfoams, Baggallini, and Columbus Product Group.
Gola is the hero brand in the Jacobson Group portfolio.
JAY MAWSON
Going forward, RGB will run the operations, logistics and distribution for Jacobson Group and future brands that join the MCPU lifestyle platform. RGB’s job is to unlock the value of the platform’s heritage brands through shared scale and enhanced go-to-market capabilities.
The Marubeni lifestyle platform is led by president and chief executive officer Bob Mullaney, who said that by “pairing Jacobson’s strengths with RGB’s scale, infrastructure, and operational excellence, we are well-positioned to accelerate growth across key international markets.”
Jacobson Group, which is based in Manchester, England, with around 80 to 90 staff, will continue to be led by its existing leadership team of Tony Evans, Gary Shutt, Jonathan Jacobson and Donna Hill.
A 1972 ad for Gola.
Harvey Jacobson, founder and executive chairman of Jacobson Group, plans to retire once the deal has closed.
Jacobson said he was “hugely proud of everything the group has achieved since my brother and I launched the business in 1982. It has been a privilege to steward these iconic British footwear brands. As we look to the future, it is clear that Marubeni and RGB offer the ideal platform, vision, and long-term commitment to take Jacobson’s brands into their next phase of growth.”
Evans, CEO of Jacobson Group, said the acquisition represents “a major milestone for the business, and I look forward to working closely with the RGB and Marubeni teams to drive growth across the globe.”
Evans also paid tribute to “Harvey and the wider Jacobson family … who made the group what it is today. Harvey has put his heart and soul into growing the business. We all owe him our sincere thanks as we wish him well in his retirement.”
