California Apparel News

Quiksilver announced it is shedding Mervin Manufacturing Inc., which makes snowboard products, in a sale to Extreme Holdings Inc., a strategic holding company in Pennsylvania.

The business deal, announced Oct. 23, did not give a sale price but is an all-cash transaction.

Quiksilver acquired the snowboard maker in 1997 for $4.3 million plus the assumption of $3 million in bank debt.

Mervin Manufacturing, located in Carlsborg, Wash., had sales of $32 million for the previous 12-month period. The company was advised by Altamont Capital Partners.

Mervin’s brands include Gnu, Lib Tech and Bent Metal. Founded in 1977 by snowboarders Mike Olson and Pete Saari, the company will continue to manufacture Quiksilver’s Roxy brand of snowboards.

Quiksilver, based in Huntington Beach, Calif., deals primarily in branded apparel, footwear and accessories that appeal to the surf and snowboard crowd.

In May, Quiksilver announced a multi-year profit-improvement plan to turn around the company from an entity that had a net loss of $10.76 million in fiscal 2012 to a company that makes money.

The company said it intends to use the cash to strengthen its brands, grow sales and make the company more efficient.

Quiksilver has branched out to buy other industry-related companies before. In 2005, when the economy was riding high, Quiksilver acquired the Rossignol Group, a French maker of skis and snowboards, for $320 million. Three years later, as the economy started to decline, it sold it to Chartreuse & Mont Blanc for $100 million.