After hectic negotiations, Tenson was acquired last week by the shareholders of Unlimited Sports Group (USG), the Dutch sports wholesale and retail behemoth. The company wants to bring Tenson back to growth after several years of decline, which reduced its sales to about €10 million, mostly in Scandinavia and the Benelux countries.
The loss-making Swedish company was sold by EQT, the Scandinavian investment group that bought Tenson in 2006. At the same time, EQT acquired Five Seasons, another Swedish outdoor and golf brand, and later added Lundhags to form the Norrwin outdoor group. The investors intended to build up a wider European outdoor conglomerate, but the sale of Tenson amounts to the demise of Norrwin, since EQT already sold Five Seasons last year. It only retains Lundhags, another Swedish company, which is growing and profitable, with strong prospects of further international expansion.
The USG group is the leading integrated retailer in the Netherlands, with banners from Perry Sport to Aktiesport and Time Out, along with Primo in Belgium. Furthermore, USG has a distribution deal for Under Armour in the Benelux countries and licenses for a raft of other sports brands, from Helly Hansen to Champion, Diadora, Ellesse, Le Coq Sportif and more, mostly in the Benelux countries but also in Germany and Austria for some of these brands.
However, USG and Tenson executives emphasized that the Swedish company had been acquired by the shareholders of USG, rather than the USG group itself, and that Tenson would continue to be run independently. The shareholders in question include Jos Gillebaard and Len Langenberg, the two men behind USG, along with Bencis Capital.
Headed by Johan Lövqvist, Tenson’s management will remain in place, working from its international head office in Gothenburg. Still, USG’s retail network and infrastructure should come in very useful for the international growth of the Tenson brand, particularly its distribution activities in Germany and Austria. Another smaller consequence of the deal is that, under fresh ownership, Tenson is likely to review an arrangement whereby it started distributing Five Seasons products in the Benelux countries last year.
The acquisition comes after heated negotiations between EQT and several bidders. McGregor Fashion Group, a Dutch company that owns the McGregor and Gaastra brands, was among the interested parties. In fact, it launched court proceedings against EQT earlier this year, alleging that EQT had breached its obligations by bringing USG’s shareholders into the fray when it had already signed a deal with McGregor on the sale of Tenson.
McGregor therefore accused EQT of disrupting negotiations. It filed a claim of €8 million against EQT and got Tenson’s spring and summer range impounded for more than two weeks – just as the company was starting to deliver its products to retailers. The case was opened in an Amsterdam court but the Tenson products have been released and the outcome of the case should not have any more repercussions on the brand.
