The Golf Warehouse (tgw.com) sold?

[Moecat]

http://www.bizjournals.com/wichita/news/2012/11/08/northern-tool-equipment-acquires-the.html

 

Northern Tool & Equipment announced Thursday that, pending regulatory approval, it will acquire Wichita-based The Golf Warehouse and South St. Paul, Minn.-based The Sportsman's Guide in a $215 million transaction.

Both brands are owned by Redcats USA, a division of the French firm PPR.

PPR has been trying to sell Redcats to focus more on luxury brands, including Gucci and Yves St. Laurent, and some analysts had expected Redcats' brands to be sold off piece-by-piece.

Northern Tool, which is based in Burnsville, Minn., and has a store in west Wichita, says it doesn't anticipate any job cuts as a result of the transaction. It says it eventually plans to add jobs as it brings together the businesses.

The Golf Warehouse has about 250 employees in Wichita.

Here's more from a Northern Tool news release:

BURNSVILLE, Minn. – Nov. 8, 2012 – Northern Tool + Equipment, a leading supplier of high-quality tools and equipment founded and owned by the Kotula family, today announced it has agreed to acquire The Sportsman's Guide and The Golf Warehouse from Redcats USA, a division of French company PPR, for $215 million.

 

Pending regulatory approval, the deal will transform Northern Tool + Equipment into a company nearing $1.5 billion in sales.

 

The Sportsman's Guide is a South St. Paul, Minn.-based supplier of top-quality outdoor goods sold via catalogs as well as SportsmansGuide.com, BoatingSavings.com and WorkWearSavings.com. The Golf Warehouse is a Wichita, Kan.-based online golf equipment retailer. Both companies will continue to operate as stand-alone brands to take advantage of their considerable brand equity.

 

Northern Tool + Equipment expects to seamlessly integrate The Sportsman's Guide and The Golf Warehouse into its current operations, taking advantage of ample economies of scale. Moreover, all the brands share a common target customer that Northern Tool + Equipment has marketed to very effectively for more than 30 years.

 

No job cuts are expected as a result of the acquisition. Northern Tool + Equipment anticipates eventually adding new jobs as a result of a successful melding of the businesses.

 

“We are very bullish about this milestone acquisition – it builds on our operational strength and synergies,” said Chuck Albrecht, president, Northern Tool + Equipment. “Furthermore, we were drawn to both companies being family-run institutions with strong management. We look forward to building an even brighter future together.”

 

Houlihan Lokey advised on the acquisition process. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is arranging the financing for the transaction.

[Ice]

TGW is one of the few online golf retailers I like. I hope they come out of this stronger than before.

[jayhawker]

Yep. They're probably my favorite online retailer.

 

Fairways & Greens 4ever

Agree with both of you. I really like the golf warehouse, at least when I need item specs and other things. Maybe they'll get cheaper than most other places after this switch.

They do do a lot of business though. I went to their warehouse in Wichita this past summer. ( my grandparents live in kansas). It was quite surprising how small the store was . There was less golf retail than in most dicks. The building was massive though, just devoted to their warehouse storage. They must have had easily 10 semis docked in the back of the warehouse being unloaded/loaded. They definetely have a pretty big business goin.

[Casey]

TGW is one of the few online golf retailers I like. I hope they come out of this stronger than before.

 

They are indeed a great company. And I do hope the best for them since I love to use their Free coupons.