Britax Acquires B.O.B. Gear
Oct. 20, 2011
Two of the top brands in the juvenile products category are coming together under the BRITAX umbrella. BRITAX, the world’s premier manufacturer and marketer of children’s car safety seats and strollers, today announced the acquisition of BOB Gear, a leading, innovative, high-quality maker of jogging strollers.
BRITAX successfully expanded into the stroller market by launching its B-Series of strollers in recent years (B-READY, B-SMART, B-MOBILE and B-SCENE). The company complemented its stroller offering earlier this year when it introduced its innovative, quick-folding B-AGILE stroller. Customers value the strollers’ versatility, light weight and easy-use characteristics. BRITAX car seats and strollers are sold globally in all major retailers and specialty stores.
BOB Gear, which began in 1994 as a manufacturer of bicycle trailers, is widely considered America’s premier provider of innovative, design oriented high quality “sport utility,” or jogging strollers. BOB’s line of successful products includes the BOB Revolution SE and CE, as well as BOB Ironman®, BOB Sport Utility Stroller and the BOB Stroller Strides®*Fitness Stroller. Based in Boise, Idaho, the company now makes a full line of multi-functional strollers and accessories that is sold at retailers and specialty stores across the U.S. and Canada. Its strollers are compatible with popular infant car seats on the market today.
“Families want products that fit their lifestyles,” said Karl Kahofer, CEO of BRITAX Child Safety, “and BRITAX is committed to developing products and technologies that provide safe mobility and comfort for children around the world. This commitment is reflected in the design and engineering of all our products — especially our B-Series strollers and accessories.
“We’ve admired for some time BOB’s ingenuity and commitment to customers and are convinced that its products, customer service, and business ethics make it a natural fit for BRITAX. This purchase reinforces BRITAX global leadership in child safety and mobility, and is fully in line with our international growth strategy. We have no plans to change the BOB name; in fact we are excited to expand the BOB product range globally.”
BOB Gear cofounder and CEO, Roger Malinowski, is equally enthusiastic about the acquisition. “When we started this company more than fifteen years ago,” he said, “we simply wanted to design and manufacture the world’s best single-wheel bike trailers, and later, the world’s best strollers for active, sports-minded parents. When you look at the thoughtful engineering behind the BRITAX stroller line and the revolutionary design behind its car seats, you can see why our two companies will fit well together.”
The parties have agreed to not disclose the purchase price.
*Stroller Strides and Stroller Strides logo are registered trademarks of Stroller Strides, LLC used by permission.
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Official product of Ironman Triathlon. Ironman and M-dot logos are registered trademarks of the World Triathlon Corporation, used by permission.