Outdoor gear cataloger The Sportsman’s Guide on June 29 bought The Golf Warehouse (TGW), a Wichita, KS-based cataloger of golf equipment, in an all-cash transaction valued at about $30 million. The acquisition gives the South St. Paul, MN-based Sportsman’s Guide, which does the lion’s share of its business during the third and fourth quarters, a first- and second-quarter business.
TGW launched in 1998 as a dot-com-only discount marketer of name-brand golf equipment; it began mailing catalogs in November 2002. The $40 million TGW has had a five-year compounded growth rate of more than 60% and this past year had operating income of $1.7 million.
Although Sportsman’s Guide hasn’t been in the golf business before, “golf equipment is outdoors, The Sportsman’s Guide has leisure equipment, and golf is a leisure activity,” says spokesperson Bill Bartkowski. “And this will smooth out the seasonality of Sportsman’s Guide’s business.”
In addition to gaining a spring and summer business, The Sportsman’s Guide plans to add significant value to TGW’s catalog with synergies and cost savings. The Sportsman’s Guide plans to retain TGW’s management team and full staff.