The HEAD Group, house owners of Mares dive tools and dive coaching company Scuba Colleges Worldwide (SSI) has taken over the Aqualung Group, which was positioned into receivership on 16 Might this yr.
A attainable takeover was introduced in April after Aqualung was discovered to have struggled financially since its acquisition by Barings in December 2023
HEAD, which additionally owns dive gear producer Apeks, rEVo Rebreathers, scuba journey firm liveaboard.com and Australian swimwear model Zoggs, introduced it’s to place ahead a €50 million rescue package deal which shall be a part of a ‘complete integration plan’ to rescue the struggling enterprise.
The takeover will contain a restructuring of the Aqualung Group’s enterprise platform which is able to see ‘lots of of jobs saved’ at Aqualung’s present manufacturing services in France, with services within the UK and Mexico to be ‘improved and expanded’.
The information of the takeover was introduced in an announcement posted on the Mares web site:
As per a judgement rendered by the Business Courtroom of Good on June twenty sixth, HEAD has been declared the profitable occasion in a bid for the troubled Aqualung Group which was positioned in receivership on Might sixteenth.
Constructing on its current portfolio in Winter Sports activities, Racquet Sports activities, Sportswear, and Water Sports activities, the transaction will considerably strengthen HEAD’s presence within the Water Sports activities section by increasing its model portfolio past its established Water Sports activities manufacturers that embody Mares, SSI, rEvo, Liveaboard.com and Zoggs.
HEAD is planning a restructuring of the AQUALUNG Group enterprise platform and can present pressing funding to safe the continuation and long-term sustainability of the group.
As such, the HEAD Group has provided a rescue package deal of over €50 million together with a complete integration plan with important synergies. It can see lots of of jobs saved and Aqualung’s present manufacturing services in France, the UK and Mexico improved and expanded.
The mixed group turns into the world chief within the international Water Sports activities market, uniting two iconic gamers pushed by security, technical excellence, innovation, consolation and design, efficiency, and fervour for sport and aquatic exploration.
HEAD will keep and develop the Aqualung, Apeks and Aquasphere manufacturers and reinforce its strategic and rising navy {and professional} division.
HEAD additionally plans to construct on Aqualung Group’s manufacturing capabilities to help the worldwide manufacturing and distribution of premium merchandise. The mixed experience of the 2 firms will speed up market management and open new alternatives to broaden entry to water sports activities worldwide.
Aqualung, based in 1943 by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Émile Gagnan, was the primary firm to efficiently produce a commercially obtainable open-circuit demand valve – the forerunner of the fashionable scuba diving regulator.
Its merchandise are distributed in additional than 90 international locations and well-liked with navy {and professional} divers, in addition to on the earth of leisure divers.
Initially based within the US in 1947 as a snowboarding tools firm, HEAD grew to become a family identify within the Nineteen Seventies as a producer of the primary aluminium tennis racquets.
The group acquired Mares in 1971 and SSI in 2014, and says the coaching company’s income has greater than doubled over the past decade.
