 | |
| Industry |
|
|---|---|
| Founder |
|
| Products | |
| Website | beararchery |
Bear Archery is a manufacturer and marketer of bows and archery equipment located in Gainesville, Florida, owned by Escalade Sports. [1]
| | |
| Industry |
|
|---|---|
| Founder |
|
| Products | |
| Website | beararchery |
Bear Archery is a manufacturer and marketer of bows and archery equipment located in Gainesville, Florida, owned by Escalade Sports. [1]
The company was founded in 1933 as the Bear Products Company in Detroit by Fred Bear and Charles Piper. [2] The initial focus was on silk-screening and advertising support work for automotive companies.
In 1938 Fred Bear hired Nels Grumley, a woodworker and bowyer, and the company expanded to offer hand-made bows. [3]
Fred Bear sold the advertising side of the Bear Products Company in 1940. The archery business was named Bear Archery.
In 1947 the company moved to a new facility in Grayling, Michigan. The Grayling plant focused on making and marketing recurve bows and longbows in a growing archery market. Bow manufacturing changed from hand-made bows to mass production using fiberglass and other modern materials.
Fred Bear sold the company to Victor Comptometer in 1968, [4] but remained the president of Bear Archery. The company was not one of the first compound bow manufacturers, but eventually found success with early models like the Whitetail Hunter.
Bear Archery moved manufacturing from Michigan to Gainesville, Florida in 1978.
Over the next three decades Bear Archery changed hands in a series of mergers, acquisitions, and spin-offs from Victor Comptometer to Walter Kidde & Co, [5] Hanson PLC, U.S. Industries, [6] Fenway Partners [7] and the North American Archery Group.
In 2003 Escalade Sports acquired the North American Archery Group and currently does business as Bear Archery Inc. [8]
Grayling is a city and the county seat of Crawford County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the only incorporated community in Crawford County. The population was 1,884 at the 2010 census. The city is surrounded by Grayling Charter Township, but the two are administered autonomously.
LucasVarity plc was a UK automotive parts manufacturer, created by a merger of the British Lucas Industries plc, and the North American Varity Corporation in August 1996.
Ertl is a former American manufacturing company and current brand of toys, best known for its die-cast metal alloy collectible replicas of agricultural machinery. Other products manufactured by Ertl include cars, airplanes, and commercial vehicles.
Jacuzzi is an American private company that manufactures and markets hot tubs, pools, and other bath products. It is best known for the Jacuzzi hydrotherapy products. The company is headquartered in Irvine, California. It is the largest hot tub manufacturer in Europe with eight factories, the largest being in Italy.
Heidelberg Materials UK is a British-based building materials company, headquartered in Maidenhead. Previously known as Hanson UK, the company has been a subsidiary of the German company HeidelbergCement since August 2007, and was formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange and a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Fred Bear was an American bow hunter and manufacturer. Although he did not start bow hunting until he was 29 and did not master the skill for many years, he is widely regarded as a pioneer in the bow hunting community. Bear was a world traveler, film producer, and the founder of Bear Archery. He died in Gainesville, Florida and is inducted in the Bowhunters Hall of Fame.
Kidde is a brand subsidiary of Carrier Global that manufactures and distributes fire detection and suppression equipment, as well as smoke and CO alarm units. Kidde is one of America's largest manufacturers of smoke alarms and fire safety products. Kidde is headquartered in Mebane, North Carolina.
The Simmons Bedding Company is an American major manufacturer of mattresses and related bedding products, based in Atlanta, Georgia. The company was founded in 1870. Simmons' flagship brand is Beautyrest. In addition to operating 18 manufacturing facilities in the United States and Puerto Rico, the company licenses its products internationally. According to a Simmons press release, net sales for 2005 were $855 million, and its revenue was $1.13 billion in 2007 and $1.228 billion in 2013. In 2011, Simmons ranked in third place among U.S. mattress manufacturers, with a 15.7 percent market share. In 2012, Simmons and its sister company Serta International were acquired by American private equity company Advent International. As of 2022, Simmons is a subsidiary of the American company Serta Simmons Bedding, LLC of Doraville, Georgia. On January 23, 2023, Serta Simmons Bedding filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Vincent Gordon Lindsay White, Baron White of Hull, KBE, known as Gordon White, was co-founder with James Hanson of the British conglomerate Hanson plc and one of the most successful corporate raiders of the 1970s and 1980s known for his uncanny intuition and ruthless takeover tactics. He died in Los Angeles aged 72, leaving most of his £70 million fortune to his son Lucas.
Victor Technology LLC is a supplier of printing calculators, scientific calculators, financial calculators, basic calculators, and desktop accessories with headquarters in Bolingbrook, Illinois. Victor products are sold primarily throughout the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico through independent office supply dealers.
The Archery Trade Association (ATA), is the trade group representing manufacturers, retailers, distributors, sales representatives and others working in the archery and bowhunting industry. The ATA has served its members since 1953. It is dedicated to making the industry profitable by decreasing business overhead, reducing taxes and government regulation, and increasing participation in archery and bowhunting.
CSS Industries, Inc., was founded in 1923, as City Stores Company. Its headquarters is at 1845 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with showrooms in New York City, Memphis, Tennessee, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Hong Kong. The company designs, manufactures, and distributes seasonal and everyday greeting cards and novelties.
Fenway Partners is an American private equity firm that makes leveraged buyout and growth capital investments in transportation logistics, consumer products, and manufacturing companies in the middle market. In 2002 Fenway acquired the molding equipment and customer base of Premier Tile. The price for the acquisition was $8.25 million. The firm was founded in 1994 by Richard Dresdale and Peter Lamm and has over $2 billion of capital under management. Since its inception, the firm has raised three private equity funds. Fenway's first fund closed on approximately $525 million of capital commitments in 1996 and just two years later, in 1998, the firm raised an additional $900 million of capital. As a result of several investments made in the 1998 fund, before the collapse of the dot-com bubble, performance in that fund was affected. Nevertheless, the firm was able to raise a successor fund in 2006 and 2007 with approximately $700 million of commitments from institutional investors.
Valley-Dynamo, Inc. is a gaming and sporting goods manufacturing company. It has been the dominant manufacturer of coin-operated pool tables in North America for over 6 decades, and produces the US-ubiquitous Valley brand and decreasingly common Dynamo brand. The company also manufactures other market-leader brand names, including Tornado brand table football (foosball), Dynamo air hockey, and Champion indoor shuffleboard tables, as well as Sun Glo shuffleboard equipment, for both the home and coin-op markets.
Life Fitness is an American fitness company specializing in the production and distribution of cardiovascular and strength training equipment under several brands including Life Fitness, Cybex and Hammer Strength. It is headquartered in Rosemont, Illinois and is a portfolio company of KPS Capital Partners.
Easton Archery, formally Jas. D. Easton, Inc., is an American archery equipment company that has existed since 1953. The company was started by James Douglas "Doug" Easton (1907–1972), who had made bows and arrows since 1922, and who in 1932 opened Easton's Archery Shop in Los Angeles. After the creation of the manufacturing company in 1953, Easton grew to become the world's leading archery business and pioneered the use of aluminum in sporting goods.
Easton Sports, Inc. was an American sports equipment company that existed from 1985 to 2014. Easton was formed as a subsidiary of Jas. D. Easton, Inc. through the acquisition and renaming of the Curley-Bates Co. The company grew to become a major player in baseball and hockey equipment production. In the early 2000s, around 40 per cent of National Hockey League players used Easton sticks.
Forterra is a manufacturer of building products for the United Kingdom's construction industry. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Escalade Inc., known as Escalade Sports, is a sporting goods manufacturer, distributor, and retailer based in Evansville, Indiana. It trades on NASDAQ as ESCA.
Spartus Corporation was an American consumer electronics manufacturer originally based in Chicago, Illinois. Founded as the Utility Manufacturing Company in 1934, it produced a wide variety of products, including wall clocks, alarm clocks, electric shavers, analog cameras, and more. It sold these through a medley of brands—including Falcon, Spartus, Galter, Regal, Monarch, Spencer, among others. It was founded in 1934 by Jack Galter (1904–1993) as a continuation of his father's manufacturing company.