New Wave AB, the Sweden-based owner of the Craft clothing brand, has bought North American distribution rights to the brand from Karhu North America, which had been distrbuting Craft here since 1999.
Under its new ownership, Craft's North American headquarters will remain in Beverly, Mass., and will continue to be led by?Huub Valkenburg, who was the founder of the Craft distribution business in North America. Valkenburg will become CEO of?Craft Sportswear North America LLC. Under the purchase agreement with Karhu, three current Karhu employees transfered to Craft Sportswear North America. The agreement also included the purchase of?inventory, intellectual property and contract rights.
"We are very proud to have established Craft as a performance apparel brand in North America driving a profitable sustainable business and look forward to growing the brand even more in the years to come," said Valkenburg.
New Wave paid $3 million initially for the rights, with an additional contingent price of as much as $4.75 million depending on the results of the business over the next five years.
New Wave Group AB is traded on NASDAQ OMX Nordic Exchange in Stockholm. Through its U.S. subsidiary New Waves owns several businesses in North America including the clothing brand Cutter & Buck, golf brand Ahead, Inc. and glovemaker Paris Glove.
