Olympia Sports sold to Denver-based chain, will close 77 stores
Photo / William Hall
On Thursday morning, employees at the Falmouth branch of Olympia Sports were stocking merchandise as news of the company's acquisition spread.
Olympia Sports, a chain of athletic apparel and footwear stores with headquarters in Westbrook, has been acquired by a Colorado-based sports retailer, JackRabbit, the Denver company said Wednesday.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. But on Thursday, Olympia spokeswoman Joanne Kenny told Mainebiz the purchase included only 75 of the company’s 152 stores. The remaining 77 will close in the coming months, she said.
It’s not yet clear which stores will be shuttered, how many of the 16 Maine branches will close, or how many employees will be affected.
JackRabbit and the private equity firm that owns it, CriticalPoint Capital of Manhattan Beach, Calif., plan to continue operating the acquired stores under the Olympia brand, according to a news release.
“We look forward to transitioning Olympia to the JackRabbit family and believe they will be outstanding stewards of the Olympia brand and its long-standing customers and vendors,” Olympia President Ed Manganello said in the release.
Manganello’s father, Ed Manganello Sr., founded Olympia in 1975 with a single store at the Maine Mall in South Portland. The company has grown dramatically since then, at one time operating over 200 branches from Maine to Virginia.
JackRabbit currently operates about 60 stores in 18 states. Many of the branches are the result of previous acquisitions, and operate under a variety of names. The JackRabbit identity was introduced in 2015 as an umbrella brand for the chain.
Brad Holtmeier, partner at CriticalPoint, commented in the release: "Olympia Sports is a cornerstone investment and brand for the JackRabbit family of stores due to its success serving communities in the Northeast over the previous 45 years. The combination of these two specialty athletic retailers is an ideal match and allows JackRabbit to expand its footprint and product categories further into athletic goods, while maintaining its commitment to dedicated athletes and runners."
Consolidation in the running and sports apparel business is nothing new.
The number of specialty athletic footwear stores hit a high of 1,343 in 2007, according to a Runner's World magazine article in 2016, but declined to 1,254 by 2012. That’s about the time when JackRabbit, then known as Running Specialty Group, began acquiring them. Eventually, it accumulated stores under more than 20 names.
Olympia isn’t the only sports apparel company with a Maine connection. In 1992, Colin Peddie, a Hallowell native and former distance running star at Cheverus High School in Portland, bought a store in Cambridge, Mass., and has since grown it into a nine-branch Massachusetts chain, Marathon Sports. In recent years, Marathon has also acquired seven other stores in Connecticut and New Hampshire.
Editor's Note: This story was corrected to indicate the number of Olympia stores in Maine according to the company's website.
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