The new owners of CCM want to encourage more girls and women to enjoy hockey, which could help the ancient Montreal manufacturer of hockey equipment reach a new generation of consumers.
In a deal for about$ 450 million, CCM’s current control will be merged with Scandinavian private equity firm Altor. It’s anticipated to come to an end in 2024. The new shareholders believe there is untapped potential in the 125-year-old brand despite the company’s current private equity owner, Birch Hill, whose revenue has reportedly doubled from the$ 300 million CCM produced in 2016 compared to its previous full year under Adidas.
In a video visit from his Montreal company, CCM CEO Marrouane Nabih said,” The company is bigger than the company.” ” We have so much collateral that is not yet materialized. There are many ways that we see this opportunity to alter the game of hockey.

Expanding women’s involvement in sports is one area of focus. ” Women are only 10 % of hockey players. It should be 50 %. We’ve made an investment in that, and we want to ensure that the sport is expanding. In order to expand the market, CCM intends to expand its assistance for girls and women’s sports, and it has been expanding its range of women’s hockey gear FTW this decade. ” Nothing of our competitors have been investing substantially it, we decided it’s crucial”. The start of the Professional Women’s Hockey League this time may also improve women’s sports, he said.
Another possible market expansion is in the clothing industry. When Adidas sold off CCM in the middle of 2017, it still held the CCM clothing company business, which was then the NHL’s supplier. Andreas Källström, Nabih and Altor’s companion in charge of consumer goods trading, suggests that this could be one of the areas they look to while not making a commitment to a return to clothing at the moment.
Källström, who also participated in the movie call, said that the brand has appeal in various categories, which might not be products you use on the snow but rather in other situations. ” In contrast, there are physical hands where there could be more progress than in the classic warm parts of Canada, U. S. and northern Europe”.
CCM may expand its financial audience because Altor owns a majority of the shares. Altor has about$ 12 billion in assets under management, with investments in 53 companies currently. While hardly a sports-specific investor, the fund has expertise in sports equipment manufacturers and sports store. The account is a major investment in publicly traded XXL, the largest sporting goods store in the Scandinavian countries, and owns the skiing brand Rossignol. Altor formerly owned outside product Helly Hansen, then a section of big box store Canadian Tire, and bought another exterior product public, RevolutionRace.
” A good share of what we do are company tales and a target on leisure, sport or an effective lifestyle”, Källström said. The professional cited Marshall, a distinguished guitar amplifier company that has expanded under Altor into home and portable speakers, headphones, and, perhaps less naturally, into rum and craft beer as an example of how Altor likes to divide companies into logical categories.

Do n’t plan to stock the fridge with CCM lager right away. According to Naih, one of the key factors in CCM’s partnership with Altor is the firm’s expertise and assistance for technologies by its profile companies. For one, the technical side could assist CCM cement its position as the best player in seven of the eight groups of on-ice equipment used by NHL players, including sticks, helmets, and protectives like pads, according to the executive. CCM is next in skis among the 707 NHL player people, he said.
” I’ve had the opportunity to meet with many]bidder ] groups the past couple of months because there is a lot of interest around CCM, and I believe we are in the best possible hands ]with Altor ]”, Nabih added. We made significant investment in goods development, which turned out to be the best course of action. The fun is now how may we lay those bases and build growth in the future.