ANOKA, Minn. (BRAIN) — Vista Outdoor has agreed to acquire Simms Fishing Products, a Montana-based sports fishing gear brand.
Simms will join Vista Outdoor's outdoor sports brands, which include Bell, Giro, Blackburn, QuietKat, Fox Racing and CamelBak. Vista Outdoor bought Fox Racing, the protective gear brand, earlier this month for $540 million.
Vista Outdoor has announced plans to split its outdoor sports brands off into a separate publicly traded company from its shooting sports brands. The outdoor brands company, yet to be named, coincidentally will be based in Bozeman, Montana, which is where Simms is headquartered.
Simms was founded in 1980 and later acquired in 1993 by K.C. Walsh, its current Executive Chairman. The company's products are used by more than 8,500 Simms-sponsored fishing professionals and are distributed through specialty retail stores, both domestically and internationally, and directly to consumers through simmsfishing.com.
"Simms is the perfect fit for our diversified portfolio of leading, iconic outdoor brands," said Chris Metz, Vista Outdoor CEO.
"Simms broadens our core addressable market into the highly attractive fishing category with a premium, innovative brand with significant room for growth. Simms will be a central plank in our long-term growth strategy and will be the anchor of our new fishing platform within Outdoor Products. Fishing, particularly fly fishing where Simms has its roots, is a natural adjacency to our Outdoor Products business and Simms serves an enthusiast consumer demographic that has proven to be largely recession-resistant over time. With a beloved, household name brand like Simms leading the way, we believe that we can create a fishing platform that serves the 55 million+ anglers while delivering long-term growth and value for our shareholders for years to come."
