Columbia Sportswear Company won out over three other bidders in the London Fog Bankruptcy auction of the Pacific Trail group of brands with a bid of $20.4 million. There were only three other bidders involved in the process, Perry Ellis, Studio Ray, LLC, a sportswear company whos products are primarily sold at Target, and an unnamed Canadian company who was only interested in the Towne brand. The transaction closed on March 31. All of the brands under the Pacific Trail umbrella were part of the purchase, including
Pac Tech, Towne, Black Dot, and Moonstone.
The company also owns registered trademarks for many of these brands in over 40 countries. Also included in the deal were certain liabilities, primarily the lease on Pacific Trails warehouse and distribution center and several licensing agreements. No debt was transferred in the deal. “The real reason for us to attend the auction was the Pacific Trail brand,” said Columbia
VP and general counsel, Peter Bragdon. “Thats not to say that the other brands do not have value, they certainly do. There is a lot of cache in many of the brands, but if this had been an auction for only the Moonstone brand, we would not have been there.”
Sources close to the deal claim all of the Pacific Trail brands combined are expected to be a $50 million to $60 million business in 2006 with $40 million of orders already in-hand.
