New York. NY, March 10, 2008 - MidOcean Partners, a leading private equity firm with offices in New York and London, today announced that its portfolio company, totes>>Isotoner Corporation, has acquired Northern Cap Holdings, Inc (d/b/a “Northern Cap & Glove‘). This acquisition combines the leading designer and marketer of branded casual footwear, rainwear, and cold-weather accessories with a leading maker of branded and private label headwear and gloves for men, women, and children.
Based in Minneapolis, Northern Cap & Glove was founded in 1950 and sells its extensive product lines through all level of retail channels, including mass merchants, national chains, catalog and direct marketers, specialty retailers, branded apparel companies and department stores. The Company has licenses to market headwear, gloves and scarves under the Dockers, GoreTex and Karen Neuburger brand names in addition to its private label programs.
Doug Gernert, Chairman and CEO of totes>>Isotoner Corporation, said, “The gain in scale from the addition of Northern Cap & Glove will allow us to better offer our customers unmatched value and, as the retail industry continues to consolidate, we will be able to provide an even broader suite of branded and private label merchandise across markets.”
David Basto, a Principal at MidOcean, said, “We are very pleased with our investment in totes>>Isotoner as the company continues to grow both organically and through strategic acquisitions. The acquisition of Northern Cap & Glove is another step in the growth of totes>>Isotoner and we look forward to working with the management team to integrate the company into the totes>>Isotoner organization and build on their success. We will continue to pursue targeted acquisitions that will provide complementary product lines that further broaden the totes>>Isotoner product portfolio.”
Ivan Rafowitz, CEO of Northern Cap & Glove, said, “We look forward to becoming a part of the totes>>Isotoner family of brands. Northern Cap & Glove is a great fit with the totes>>Isotoner product lines and we expect to benefit from the company’s strong customer relationships, marketing expertise and broad channel distribution.”