A major shake-up took place in the outdoor and action sports accessories markets as Chums and Chisco intend to merge into a single entity that will be headquartered in Chiscos current Salt Lake facility and warehouse. Plans call for all manufacturing for the combined company to be centralized at Chums Hurricane, Utah facility, while customer service, marketing, and product customization will be handled at the Salt Lake office. The merger is expected to be finalized in November, 2006. Combined, both companies employ about 60 workers with some of those jobs likely shifting to Salt Lake City.
With the merger, all eyewear products will be sold under the Chums brand and other accessories will be sold under the Chisco brand. Currently, Chisco is the worldwide licensee for Freestyle accessories with Freestyle expected to remain as a licensed brand after the merger.
Chuck Ferries, CEO and president of Chums, will become CEO of the new consolidated company, while Beirne Chisolm, president of Chisco, will become VP of marketing, and his brother and Chisco co-founder Greg Chisolm, will be CFO of the new company.
