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Related Party Agreements and Transactions
12 Months Ended
Jan. 27, 2023
Related Party Transactions [Abstract]  
Related Party Agreements and Transactions

NOTE 13. RELATED PARTY AGREEMENTS AND TRANSACTIONS

At the time Sears Holdings Corporation and its consolidated subsidiaries (“Sears Holdings”) distributed 100% of the outstanding common stock of Lands’ End to its stockholders on April 4, 2014 (“Separation”), ESL Investments, Inc. (“ESL”) beneficially owned significant portions of both the Company’s and Sears Holdings’ outstanding shares of common stock and therefore, Sears Holdings, the Company’s former parent company, was considered a related party.

On February 11, 2019, Transform Holdco LLC, an affiliate of ESL, acquired from Sears Holdings substantially all of the go-forward retail footprint and other assets and component businesses of Sears Holdings as a going concern. The Company believes that ESL holds a significant portion of the membership interests of Transform Holdco and therefore considers that entity to be a related party as well.

In connection with and subsequent to the Separation, the Company entered into various agreements with Sears Holdings which, among other things, (i) governed specified aspects of the Company’s relationship following the Separation, especially with regards to the Lands’ End Shops at Sears, and (ii) established terms pursuant to which subsidiaries of Sears Holdings provided services to the Company. Some of these agreements were assumed by and assigned to Transform Holdco. None of these agreements remain in effect or are material to the Company.

Sourcing

The Company contracted with a subsidiary of Sears Holdings, which became a subsidiary of Transform Holdco, to provide agreed upon buying agency services, on a non-exclusive basis, in foreign territories from where the Company purchases merchandise. These sourcing services, primarily based upon quantities purchased, included quality-control functions, regulatory compliance, product claims management and new vendor selection and setup assistance. The Company’s contract for these services expired on June 30, 2020. There was no expense from these sourcing services in Fiscal 2022 or Fiscal 2021 and $2.2 million in Fiscal 2020. These amounts were capitalized into inventory and expensed through cost of goods sold over the course of inventory turns and included in Cost of sales in the Consolidated Statements of Operations.