Cloudveil changes hands

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

By Sam Petri

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-On February 5, Spyder Active Sports, Inc, the largest ski specialty brand in the world, acquired Jackson-based outdoor apparel company, Cloudveil Mountain Works, Inc. The transaction was confidential, and therefore the terms of the deal were not disclosed, but according to Cloudveil co-founder and Global Brand Vice President Stephen Sullivan, the deal is not about selling off the company he created with Brian Cousins 11 years ago. It is about building the Cloudveil brand with the partnership of a parent company.

For the past three years, Sports Brands International (SBI), a company that controlled global Fila subsidiaries, owned Cloudveil. After SBI sold Fila in early 2007 to Fila Korea Ltd. Cloudveil had no brand partner with global sourcing and supply chain infrastructure.
“We started to look for a new partner to further the Cloudveil brand strategy,” said Sullivan.

Spyder Active Sports was founded in Boulder, Colo., in 1978 by David Jacobs. It is now run by his son Jake Jacobs. Spyder is owned by parent company Apax Partners, a global private equity group that invests in five industry sectors: Tech & Telecom, Media, Retail & Consumer, Healthcare, and Financial & Business Services.
The Cloudveil headquarters will remain in Jackson and all staff and independent sales representatives have been retained, according to Sullivan. The two founders, Cousins and Sullivan, have signed multi-year contracts to continue their roles within the company. Sullivan would not say how many years the ‘multi-year’ contract was for, but said, “Brian [Cousins] and I intend to be here. … I don’t foresee this as an exit strategy for me.”

Aside from their headquarters in Boulder, Spyder has production facilities in Thailand and China, where Cloudveil products will now be made. Spyder also has a large presence in Europe, where the company does 50 percent of their sales, according to Sullivan. Now Cloudveil will be able to reach new European markets for better returns.
The buyout will give Cloudveil the opportunity to use Spyder’s supply chain, logistics, and distribution capabilities in order to build its brand.

“It’s quite unique that we’ve managed to weather all the storms,” said Sullivan. “We were bought with private equity five years ago, SBI three years ago, and now this.”

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Cloudveil changes hands | Planet JH News Article: Business

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