Beyond’s work with Kirkland’s will go a step further than hosting the Bed Bath & Beyond and Buy Buy Baby brands, with Beyond now poised to acquire Kirkland’s intellectual property.
The two retailers announced an agreement on May 12. It includes — among other details — a $5.2 million expansion of their existing credit agreement. As a result, Kirkland’s brand will join the Beyond portfolio. That portfolio already includes Bed Bath & Beyond, Buy Buy Baby and Overstock.
Beyond Inc. ranks No. 68 in the Top 2000 Database. Before the acquisition, Kirkland’s ranked No. 609. The Digital Commerce 360 database ranks North America’s largest online retailers by their annual ecommerce sales. Digital Commerce 360 projects that Beyond’s total online sales in 2025 will reach $1.34 billion.
Why Beyond is acquiring Kirkland’s IP
“Our expanded investment in Kirkland’s represents another step in our vision to create a family of trusted, iconic brands that serve customers where they are, both online and in local communities,” said Marcus Lemonis, executive chairman and principal executive officer at Beyond. “We are excited to bring a much-desired omni experience to our valuable customers.”
In addition, Lemonis described the latest agreement as a move to broaden Beyond’s “brick-and-mortar store conversion strategy” for its Bed Bath & Beyond Home concept and Buy Buy Baby. A previous deal, announced in October 2024, paved the way for Kirkland’s to become “Beyond’s exclusive brick-and-mortar operator and licensee for new, smaller format (up to 15k square feet) ‘neighborhood’ Bed Bath & Beyond locations nationwide.”
A similar deal had also been announced between Beyond and The Container Store. However, that deal ultimately fell apart as The Container Store filed for bankruptcy in December.
“We expect this to enhance Beyond’s brand equity and unlock new revenue streams across retail formats,” Lemonis stated.
What Kirkland’s will get out of the deal
“We see a tremendous opportunity to leverage the power of these brand names which we believe will drive more consistent traffic, improve inventory turns and ultimately raise the productivity of our store base,” said Amy Sullivant, the president and CEO at Kirkland’s. “In addition, Bed Bath & Beyond Home not only allows us to maximize our current Kirkland’s Home branded décor and furnishings, but it gives us permission to expand into legacy Bed Bath & Beyond brand categories such as textiles and tabletop to offer décor for every budget and every corner of your home.”
Kirkland’s listed other provisions from the agreement in a press release, noting each of the following:
- Expanding the scope of licensed brands to include an exclusive license to develop and operate Bed Bath & Beyond Home and buybuy BABY stores within the neighborhood format retail footprint.
- Enhanced collaborative efforts to maximize synergies, reduce costs and improve efficiencies to drive improved operating results.
- Modified collaboration fee from 0.25% of all revenues to 0.50% of brick-and-mortar retail revenues only to capture expanded branding opportunity while eliminating the 3.0% licensed brand royalty.
- Amendments to the Company’s existing credit agreement with Beyond to allow Beyond the right to convert outstanding debt owed to Beyond thereunder into shares of Kirkland’s common stock at a price determined at the time of such conversion election, but subject to Nasdaq shareholder approval rules, if applicable.
- Amendments to Beyond stockholder agreements to provide Beyond the right to add a third director nominee to the Company’s Board of Directors in the event that Beyond owns more than 50% of the outstanding capital stock of the Company, and to remove standstill, voting and transfer restrictions.
The news followed Beyond’s Mother’s Day relaunch of the Buy Buy Baby brand. That announcement coincided with Beyond revealing it would work with the brokerage platform tZERO on a tokenized digital security offering.
Do you rank in our databases?
Submit your data and we’ll see where you fit in our next ranking update.
Sign up
Stay on top of the latest developments in the ecommerce industry. Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 Retail News. Follow us on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook. Be the first to know when Digital Commerce 360 publishes news content.
Favorite