#GanderMountain

Marcus Lemonis has been very vocal about the evolving re-birth of Gander Outdoors through his personal Twitter account. He is the CEO of Camping World; thus, Gander Outdoors as well. What he has always eluded to when discussing whether he would keep specific stores or not is… only if the lease agreements are beneficial to Gander Outdoors’ future (I am loosely paraphrasing).

An e-mail was recently sent out to all Gander Mountain customers with a simple message from the new CEO, Marcus Lemonis.

Gander Mountain was recently purchased by Camping World Holdings (aka “Camping World) at auction. The CEO, Marcus Lemonis, is not only going to re-brand the remaining stores as “Gander Outdoors,” but he is soliciting Twitter for a new logo.

The saga that is the financial health of Gander Mountain is nearing a close. Back in February TFB reported that Gander Mountain was rumored to be facing money problems. The rumors apparently were so bothersome that Gander Mountain was prompted to give a public statement. Rumors were put to rest temporarily in early March when they filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. The rumor mill started back up with people believing Sportsman’s Warehouse was the front-runner to buy Gander Mountain. This was proven wrong when Camping World Holdings (aka “Camping World”) bought them at a bankruptcy auction for $390 million. Sportsman’s Warehouse was bidding against Camping World in hopes of purchasing them, but bowed out before the $390 million mark.

Sportsman’s Warehouse is currently in private discussions about purchasing upwards of 80% of Gander Mountain‘s stores. It is undecided whether the Gander Mountain stores would then be re-branded as Sportsman’s Warehouse locations or remain the same. If Sportsman’s Warehouse were to acquire Gander Mountain at a reasonable price this could be a very valuable acquisition.

Many people predicted the fate of Gander Mountain and now more information is surfacing. By filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy it allows Gander Mountain to clean up their dirty laundry, consolidate as needed, and potentially sell the company without too much disruption for their customers. Gander Mountain‘s timeline is looking loosely like this:

Gander Mountain is a privately owned company and normally they do not make public statements of any kind. Amidst a multitude of speculation that they were going bankrupt they finally broke their silence.

Gander Mountain is continuing down the same path that we have seen other industry giants take lately.  The destination is not a desirable one either. Gander Mountain is preparing to file for bankruptcy likely by the end of this month. Sports Authority and Sports Chalet have both filed for bankruptcy this past year as well.

Perhaps the most awe-inspiring thing many of us saw at the Blue August Gun and Outdoor Conference was the facility itself; The Lake Mary Gander Mountain features a virtual range.

Richard Tip, posted this video on YouTube a few days ago. He blogged about his experience at a Gander Mountain. I warn you, he uses a lot of expletives but it is rather funny. His observations are humorous and insightful with regards to people looking into their first firearm. I am sure many of us have experienced similar occurrences at our respective LGS.