Gander Mountain Co. (St. Paul, Minn.) has acquired Overton’s Inc. (Greenville, N.C.), a direct marketer of specialty water sports and related marine accessories, for approximately $70 million in cash, from private equity firm Linsalata Capital Partners (Cleveland).
The boating brand distributes 15 million catalogs annually and its assets include a fulfillment center and call center offering. Overton’s will continue to operate under the Overton’s brand as a wholly owned subsidiary of Gander Mountain, supporting new Internet and catalog marketing opportunities for the sporting goods retailer.
“The acquisition of Overton’s enables Gander Mountain to greatly accelerate our strategy to be an integrated, multi-channel retailer featuring Internet, catalogs and retail stores,” said president and ceo Mark Baker. “It also should provide better balance to Gander Mountain’s season sales profile with the majority of Overton’s sales in the first of the year and, and help us to improve our margins and lower our selling costs.”
Gander Mountain reported a net loss of $5.1 million in its third quarter, ended Nov. 3, 2007. The loss compares with net income of $2 million in the year-ago quarter. Sales increased 5.3 percent but same-store sales decreased 8.4 percent. Baker attributed the “disappointing” results to warm weather across the Northeast, which affected the fall hunting season, and to soft consumer demand.