United Sports Brands will make its move from the Midwest to Orange County with one more brand in tow.
Last week it purchased Philadelphia-based Nathan Sports for an undisclosed sum and plans to relocate its operations to Fountain Valley early next year.
Nathan makes hydration vests, belts, bottles, running packs, and other outdoor gear. Its revenue added up to $28.6 million in 2014, according to Inc.com’s annual ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in America.
United Sports Brands, which is majority-owned by New York-based private equity firm Bregal Partners, has a product lineup that ranges from mouth guards to gloves, and it brings in an estimated $200 million in annual revenue.
Nathan is “a company that has been growing rapidly like the rest of United Sports Brands,” said Chief Executive Tony Armand. We are anxious to continue the great work that they’ve done, but also add to that through bringing resources that we have. That may be developing different relationships with retailers. We also got a fairly robust international presence that we think will help grow the Nathan brand outside the United States.”
United Sports Brands took on its name in August when Minnetonka, Minn.-based Shock Doctor Sports and McDavid Inc. in Chicago combined operations to form the new company. It kept an office in Minnesota under the United Sports Brands banner, shuttered operations in Chicago, and continued to sell products under the Shock Doctor and McDavid brand names.
The company is moving to California because it’s a “wonderful hub of outdoor living and activity,” Armand said in an earlier interview. “That’s important to us—to both be close to our consumers and to be able to attract amazing talent to the business.”
A two-story building under construction on Slater Avenue in Fountain Valley will serve as a co-headquarters for the company, as well as a hub for sales, marketing, product development, and some distribution and manufacturing operations.
United Sports Brands continues to market mouth guards under the Shock Doctor name and an array of equipment and apparel designed to protect athletes in a wide range of sports, including football, basketball, hockey, baseball and lacrosse. Its roster of brands also includes the Cutters line of athletic gloves, McDavid’s sports medicine, protective braces, and performance apparel, and XO Athletic’s impact protection cups and supporters.
Nathan’s principal owner and chairman, Jon Reichlin, will have a stake in United Sports Brands, while its former chief executive, Bridgit Lombard, and Tricia Papile, chief financial officer, will continue as consultants to support the transition of ownership to the parent company.
Armand said he expects United Sports Brands’ OC hub to be in full operation in the “first quarter of 2016, and that’s still on track. We are in the process of building out our team here … It will be in the neighborhood of 100-plus employees.”
Some of the positions will be filled with transfers from Minnetonka, Chicago, and Philadelphia offices, as well as 10 workers at its Huntington Beach marketing bureau that was set up in 2013.
About 70 to 80 new positions will be created, he said.
