Your Bid, Sir!

Columbia's purchasing power has shown itself again at an auction yesterday in bankruptcy court. For 20.4 Million and assumption of certain liabilities, the outdoor powerhouse acquired the Pacific Trail group.

This will increase the already expansive offering of Columbia (which includes Mountain Hardwear, Sorel, and Montrail) to now include the Pacific Trail outerwear and sportswear brand, the Towne® outerwear and rainwear brand, the Pac Tec high-performance outerwear brand, the Black Dot Clothing surfing/snowboarding apparel brand, and the Moonstone mountain equipment brand.

"With the acquisition of Pacific Trail, we continue to strengthen our portfolio of authentic, outdoor brands," said Tim Boyle, President and CEO of Columbia Sportswear. "We are particularly enthusiastic about the opportunity to leverage our design and capital strengths to expand the growth opportunities for Pacific Trail products in distribution channels that Columbia has not yet developed."

Moonstone's technical level of their product offering and strength overseas creates opportunity for Columbia similar to the technical superiority acquired from Mountain Hardwear. The future of these opportunities and the success of these purchases will be seen sooner rather than later.

For better or worse, the current most effective way for Columbia's to grow is to buying other companies. What could be next for the retail magnate?

(from SportsOneSource.com)

0 comments