Industry giant buys S.I.R. store - Cabela's to take it to 'next level'
"An 83-year-old hunting and fishing retail institution in Winnipeg has been bought by one of the outdoors industry's giants.
S.I.R. Mail Order and Warehouse Sports Store has been acquired by Cabela's, Inc., a Nebraska-based outfit with US$2 billion in annual revenue, 26 locations and a massive mail-order business across the U.S. The purchase price was not disclosed, but the deal is expected to close within the next two months.
Earl Robinson, 77, president of the family-run enterprise on Ellice Avenue, said the capital investment required to keep growing the business could best be provided by a deep-pocketed owner and Cabela's fit the bill.
"S.I.R. needed the expertise of an organization that handles similar merchandise to take S.I.R. to the next level," he said. "This is a hell of a good business and I'd like to see it continue to grow."
Dennis Highby, (former) president and CEO of Cabela's, said the company will use S.I.R.'s location near Polo Park Shopping Centre as its headquarters north of the border as well as its springboard into the Canadian market.
"Our company's brand is very well recognized in Canada and that convinced us to expand our platform. We already do significant business in this country (through mail order and cross-border shopping) and we felt it was important to have a Canadian footprint," he said in an interview.
The company had previously announced plans to build a store in Montreal in time for a fall of 2009 or spring of 2010 opening. Highby said its Canadian division could be worth US$200 million annually when it's fully established. He said he and Cabela's co-founder, Jim Cabela, both of whom met with S.I.R. employees on Wednesday night, have been well aware of S.I.R. and its position in the marketplace because they have hunted and fished across Canada for more than 30 years.
Ben Kelly, the manager of corporate finance at Bieber Securities who brokered the deal, called Cabela's "Disney World for hunters."
He said Cabela's is similar to Wal-Mart in terms of its economic clout in drawing people to retail areas. For example, when Grand Forks was under water a little more than a decade ago during the Flood of the Century, the city approached Cabela's and offered it significant economic incentives to locate there and play a key role in the rebirth of the city. "If Grand Forks does this for them, the fact they're showing up in Winnipeg and doing this tells me it's pretty significant," he said in an interview.
Kelly said a number of qualified institutional buyers were approached on both sides of the border, but Cabela's was "by far" the best fit. S.I.R. was founded by Robinson's father, Sydney Isaac Robinson, in 1924 as the Sydney I. Robinson Fur Company. Its inaugural operations, which included fur shipments and trapping and hunting supplies, encompassed 120 square feet of space. The company added hunting and camping items shortly after the Second World War. Around that same time, the corporate name was abbreviated. "It was easier to say 'S.I.R.' on the phone," he said.
S.I.R. moved into a new location across the street nearly three years ago, trading in 53,000 square feet of space for 80,000 square feet of retail space.
Robinson said after 60 years on the shop floor, it was time to finally retire. "I think it's a good idea. My wife would appreciate it," he said with a laugh."
By Geoff Kirbyson Winnipeg Free Press Article presented with permission of geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca
