September 10, 2014
Sunscope Purchases Russell Facility; Starts New Venture
Top 40 supplier Sunscope (asi/90075) announced that it has purchased the Russell Brands LLC garment decoration plants and support facilities in Alexander City, AL.
Top 40 supplier Sunscope (asi/90075) announced that it has purchased the Russell Brands LLC garment decoration plants and support facilities in Alexander City, AL. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but the agreement calls for Sunscope to take over the existing apparel decorating business of Russell that is currently operated out of these facilities.
Other suppliers in the market will continue to sell blank products from Russell and sister brands Fruit of the Loom and Jerzees, as they have in the past.
In conjunction with this transaction, Sunscope has also announced the formation of a new supplier company named Aprinta Group, which will include the Aprinta Apparel Division and the Aprinta Promo Division. “The acquisition of these facilities, paired with the skills of the people who work in them make Alexander City an excellent growth opportunity for Aprinta,” said Dilip Bhavnani, managing partner for Sunscope & Aprinta Group.
As part of this deal, Aprinta has acquired more than 600,000 square feet of manufacturing and warehousing space in five buildings in Alabama. Aprinta also announced that it has offered all of the current Russell Brands/Fruit of the Loom employees in the plants a position with the newly-formed company.
This deal comes on the heels of the recent announcement that Sunscope had come to an agreement with equity firm Capital Supply Group to manage the former Camsing Global supplier brands. Capital Supply had previously purchased the assets of Camsing, and is now moving forward with the newly formed Aprinta Promo Division as the management for the legacy brands Adva-Lite, Dart Business Accessories, Drinx, Falcon Promotional Products, It’s All Greek to Me, StyleWrite, and Toppers.
Billy Dolan, the former CEO of Camsing, and his management team including Keith Olivit, Eileen Gunia, Gary Gobeli, and several other top executives, sales, marketing, customer service, and additional office support staff have been hired by Aprinta Group to run this new business. “This is a great opportunity to enter the wholesale domestic apparel market,” said Billy Dolan, CEO of Aprinta Group. “It is a very exciting day for the legacy brands as it was the right time to get owners that could properly finance the business and most importantly understand the history of the brands and what it would take to build them into the biggest and best in the industry again. Being able to offer both decorated apparel and promotional products on both coasts will create a transformational company with significant synergies to our partner distributors.”