Specialty Sport Ventures LLC, which is owned by the former owners of Gart Sports, has struck a deal to acquire six northern California Any Mountain stores out of bankruptcy. The deal is expected to close August 1. Any Mountain Ltd., which filed for Chapter 11 late last year, must get Bankruptcy Court approval for the sale of the stores.
SSV is a division of Gart Co. The company owns 120 ski, cycling, golf and fly fishing stores in Colorado and California resort towns in partnership with Vail Resorts Inc. SSV operates stores such as Colorado Ski & Golf in Denver and Heavenly Sports locations in South Lake Tahoe. The Any Mountain stores, which are located in Corte Madera, San Jose, Dublin, Berkeley, Concord and Redwood City, are expected to retain their retail nameplate, but will be converted to the SSV operations model.
Specialty Sports has generated more than $100 million in annual revenue in recent years. Any Mountain generated as much as $25 million a year at its high point.
Preliminary plans are to retain the name of the Any Mountain shops in the Bay Area. Under SSV, the six stores will be organized in a model similar to Colorado operations with mountain shops and city stores coordinating their products and tailoring their inventory to match the needs of their customers. Two primary goals will be to continue the high level of customer service and deliver the broad product assortment that has become the trademark of the SSV stores. The existing management team at Heavenly will play an active role during the transition phase to SSV ownership.
Immediately after the purchase is finalized, Specialty Sports will begin implementing new operating systems, upgrading existing stores, organizing and shipping winter inventory, and developing a marketing and advertising plan so that these six stores will be ready to accommodate skiers and snowboarders for the coming ski season. A significant advantage for consumers will be the association with Heavenly Sports in South Lake Tahoe and the addition to Any Mountain stores of products from top retailers such as Burton, K2, Volkl, Spyder, and The North Face.
According to Gart, “the decision to acquire these six stores was pretty straight forward for our company. They were the right stores, at the right time, in the right place.”
