Tubbs Snowshoes sold to ski giant K2

Vermont Business Magazine, Feb 01, 2004

The Tubbs brand is in fact the people," said Ed Kiniry, president of WinterQuest, also known as Tubbs Snowshoes, recently acquired by the sporting goods giant K2, Inc.

"I don't anticipate that K2 would pick this business up and move it someplace else because my guess is that people wouldn't move. I think the Tubbs Snowshoe Company will stay in Stowe, Vermont, or certainly in this vicinity."

While the company's 25 design, product development, and marketing jobs will most likely stay in Vermont, Kiniry said Tubbs' 65 (in part seasonal) manufacturing jobs could go to China. K2, Inc already has a facility there, with up to 7,500 employees.

In order to save money by manufacturing overseas, Kiniry said, there would have to be an Asian source for the snowshoes' decking and tubing, a possibility that's being researched. Currently Tubbs obtains 80 percent of its materials in the United States, and most of that from East Coast sources, Kiniry said.

"It's exciting, but it's changing. In today's global economy, that's how we have to think. I hope as much as possible we will stay here in Vermont in Lamoille County; but we also have to keep (changing) as our base grows bigger and bigger."

Kiniry bought the 98-year-old Tubbs in 1987 and moved it from Forestdale in Rutland County to its present location in Stowe. Since then, the company went from selling 1,600 snowshoes a year to 225,000. It now dominates the snowshoe market.

Kiniry said he expects K2, Inc will provide research and development assistance in the areas of plastics and manufacturing processes.

.They're a billion dollar company," he said. "...K2 is very active in the acquisition field, and we were large enough that being a single-season, weather dependent business was not a good place to be. We needed to be part of a larger company."

Terms of the deal were not released. According to Ski Racing magazine, for the year ended March 31, 2003, WinterQuest generated total sales of $18.6 million, with Tubbs and Atlas being the number one and two largest brands in the country. Ski racing also said, 'The purchase price was reportedly a combination of K2 common stock and cash, plus the assumption of debt."