Coats sells North America Crafts business
- 22 Jan 2019
Coats, the world’s leading industrial thread manufacturer has sold its North America Crafts business to Spinrite, a leading craft company and provider of craft knitting yarns in North America.
Spinrite produces both branded and private label products and has a diversified presence across multiple channels with a focus on craft retailers. Founded in 1952, it is headquartered in Listowel, Ontario, Canada. It is well positioned, experienced and connected to drive the NAm Crafts business forward.
Approximately 560 North America Crafts employees, will become part of Spinrite. The manufacturing site and distribution centre in Albany, and the sites in Toccoa and Douglas will transfer to Spinrite ownership. The sale includes the well known Crafts brands Red Heart, Coats & Clark, Aunt Lydia and Susan Bates. Anchor, Dual Duty XP and J&P Coats will be licensed for varying terms.
Rajiv Sharma, Group Chief Executive, Coats, said: ‘We are proud of our 120 years of crafts heritage in North America and the long association we have had with crafters but the crafting market has evolved in the past decade. This requires a higher degree of specialisation, scale, innovation and digital capabilities to succeed. The sale of our standalone North America Crafts will have a stronger future with Spinrite. It also allows us to focus complete attention on our high performing business-to-business global Apparel and Footwear, and Performance Materials segments.’
The initial cash consideration payable at completion is $37m. The sale which is conditional upon a limited number of conditions usual for this type of transaction, is anticipated to complete during the coming weeks. Proceeds from the sale will be used to make further value accretive acquisitions in the strategic focus areas of high-tech Performance Materials and Software Solutions businesses.
ENDS
For more information contact:
Kristina Blissett, Head of Group Communications
kristina.blissett@coats.com
T +44 (0)208 210 5084, M +44 (0)7714 539887
Spinrite:
Ryan Newell, President & CEO, Sprinrite
T +1 519 291 3780
Notes to Editors
About Coats
Coats is the world’s leading industrial thread manufacturer. At home in some 50 countries, Coats employs 19,000 people across six continents. Revenues in 2017 were US$1.5bn.
Coats’ pioneering history and innovative culture ensure the company leads the way around the world: providing complementary and value added products and services to the apparel and footwear industries and applying innovative techniques to develop high technology Performance Materials threads and yarns in areas such as automotive, composites and fibre optics.
Headquartered in the UK, Coats is a FTSE 250 listed company on the London Stock Exchange. It is the Official Thread Supplier to the Royal Shakespeare Company.
- Each year we make enough thread to go into 8 billion pairs of jeans - that’s one for every person on the planet
- Every month Coats produces enough thread to stretch all the way to the sun
- More than 450 million pairs of shoes are made every year using Coats’ thread
- More than 100 million car airbags are made using Coats’ Performance Materials thread every year
- In 1879 Thomas Edison used Coats’ thread in his experiments to invent the light bulb
- Our flame retardant Performance Materials threads can withstand temperatures as high as 1,000 degrees Celsius
To find out more about Coats visit www.coats.com
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About Spinrite Acquisition Corp
Spinrite is a leading craft company and provider of craft knitting yarns. Spinrite produces both branded and private label products and has a diversified presence across multiple channels with a focus on craft retailers. Spinrite was founded in 1952 and is headquartered in Listowel, Ontario, Canada.
For more information visit www.yarnspirations.com