Adria names head to lead marketing drive

Hosiery brand Adria has appointed David Hutchinson as director of marketing following its recent acquisition by Irish private equity firm Amicus Partners.

Adria was the last piece of family-owned textile group Charnos, which had been broken into three divisions and sold off over the past 12 months.

Amicus Partners acquired Adria earlier this month for an undisclosed sum and the lingerie business was sold to Premoda Group, a privately owned lingerie manufacturer and distributor.

Charnos’ knitwear division was sold to Richard Roberts, a privately owned textile company, last year.

Hutchinson joins from his position as business unit manager at Richard Roberts. He is still under contract with Richard Roberts and no start date at Adria has been confirmed for him.

A centralised Charnos marketing team previously handled Adria’s marketing. The team is expected to demerge into individual business units following the recent sales.

Adria chairman and managing director Terry McCartney will remain in his position. McCartney is also a partner at Amicus Partners.

McCartney claims the Adria brand will grow, mainly by stealing market share from its main rivals Wolford and Pretty Polly.

Amicus Partners will hold 60 per cent of Adria and the company’s management team will take 21 per cent. The remaining 19 per cent has been bought by Northern Ireland investment agency Invest NI.