Black Diamond Agrees to Purchase Sweden’s POC

[Pat Donnelly]

Black Diamond Agrees to Purchase Sweden’s POC

Published on June 7, 2012 @ 9:20 am

By First Tracks!! Online Media

Salt Lake City, UT – POC Sweden AB and Salt Lake City, Utah-based Black Diamond, Inc. have entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which Black Diamond will acquire POC, a manufacturer of protective equipment for skiing, snowboarding and other gravity sports.

Black Diamond, Inc. embarked several years ago upon an ambitious strategy to grow its business through acquisition. The company went public in 2010 in its combination with Gregory Mountain Products and Clarus Corporation. POC Sweden AB is a highly regarded manufacturer of helmets, goggles, body armor and more.

Under the terms of the definitive agreement, Black Diamond will purchase POC for approximately 311,000,000 Swedish SEK ($43.2 million), including 460,000 shares of BDE common stock, payable at closing, plus an additional 90,000,000 SEK ($12.5 million) payable in a series of significant, long-term, performance-based incentives payable to management and structured as compensation with multiple measurement and payment dates over a six and a half year period.

POC Founder and CEO Stefan Ytterborn explained, “POC has had a fantastic journey since its first season in 05/06, growing fast in all major markets. To match our size and future needs, we needed to balance a demanding situation with a partner who inherently understood POC’s culture, aesthetic and mission. We had a handful of interesting proposals but it wasn’t until Black Diamond came along and I got to visit their Salt Lake City, Utah, operations that I believed that POC and Black Diamond are the perfect match.”

For its fiscal year ended April 30, 2012, POC’s unaudited total revenues were 148,387,000 SEK ($20.6 million), an increase of approximately 34.7% over the prior year, in spite of a warm and dry winter globally. POC will continue to be located in Stockholm and be operated as a separate and discrete subsidiary of Black Diamond.

Ytterborn continued, “Black Diamond’s sincere perspective on users, product innovation, quality, safety and stubborn approach to simply be better aligns ideally with POC. Upon return to Stockholm, I shared my view with colleagues and the Board of Directors and 10 months later, we’re signing the agreement. Besides the cultural tangents, there are numerous assets at Black Diamond that are expected to yield more efficient sourcing, manufacturing, logistics, sales and distribution that is expected to allow POC to accelerate even faster.”

“POC and Black Diamond were both founded as solutions-based companies, focused on providing unmatched personal protection for active outdoor athletes,” said Peter Metcalf, President and CEO of Black Diamond. “We believe POC is one of the most innovative, fastest-growing and hottest brands in action sports protective gear today and a strong strategic addition to the Black Diamond platform.

“We expect POC to benefit significantly from Black Diamond’s robust operational infrastructure which is tailored to highly engineered, life-dependent products, including our rigorous level of QA/QC testing and compliance, manufacturing and engineering acumen, and global distribution platform,” continued Metcalf. “POC’s product line developed for the alpine and free-ride ski, mountain and road bike markets—including their paradigm-changing innovations in helmet design—provides us an array of products that expand the breadth of our multi-seasonal offerings. Along with their innovative POC Lab and valuable intellectual property, POC fits our ultimate vision of bringing together the best and brightest companies in terms of product design, aesthetics, culture and commitment to the customers we serve.”

[crucible]

My first impressions is that it's a good fit for both companies - Black Diamond get a better design and production capability for it's helmet business, which is strictly in climbing helmets now, and POC gets a better North American distribution network for its product line in national retailers.

It will also buff up Black Diamond's backcountry ski and boot and binding line, which is a is a big part of their growth strategy.

Geo