Dive Brief:
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Camping World Holdings, Inc., new owner of outdoor gear retailer Gander Mountain and its Overton unit, on Friday said it plans to re-open fewer stores than it first anticipated under new Gander Outdoors and Overton's banners, with a fresh offering of Gander Outdoors, Overton's and Camping World products and services, the company said in a press release.
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Details are still being worked out with landlords on final acceptable leases, but the original goal to reopen 70 or more stores has been scrapped for a plan to open just 57. “ [W]e are not willing to open stores which we do not believe have a clear path to profitability,” Marcus Lemonis, CEO of Camping World Holdings, said in a statement.
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Camping World last month successfully bid on Gander Mountain's assets and its Overton’s, Inc. boating business in bankruptcy court. The deal includes an amount equal to cost, which as of the date of the auction was some $15.6 million, plus $22.2 million for certain other assets.
Dive Insight:
From the get-go, Lemonis made it clear that only stores with good prospects would survive. "It’s up to the local staff, the manager to run that store profitably," he said last month via Periscope, correcting reports that all Gander Mountain stores would shutter. "I will not be picking stores that do not have a clear path to profitability — I will not do that under any circumstance.”
The 57 newly opening stores include one each in Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee; two in Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio and Virginia; four in North Carolina and Pennsylvania; five in Minnesota, New York and Texas; and eight each in Michigan and Wisconsin.
"In addition to the locations identified above, we are currently pursuing other locations for expansion and expect to announce additional locations and markets in the near term with all of our Gander Outdoors, Overton's and Camping World offerings,” Lemonis said in a statement.
