Gander Mountain - Gander Mountain

Gander Mountain Company, Inc. is headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota and is a retail network of stores for hunting, fishing, camping, and other outdoor recreation products and services. Gander Mountain Incorporated began as a catalog-based retailer in Wilmot, Wisconsin. Wilmot is located near Gander Mountain, the highest point in Lake County, Illinois a short distance across the state line. There are currently 152 Gander Mountain stores in 26 states.

In the 1990s the company sought bankruptcy protection and began to rebuild its business once it emerged. In 1996 it sold its mail order division and then later acquired the watersports company Overton's in order to relaunch its mail order business.

Management

Gander Mountain was formerly traded on NASDAQ but was turned into a private company under the majority ownership of David Pratt and the Erickson family, which own Holiday gas stations.

Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer David C. Pratt was elected Chairman of the Board in December 2006. Mr. Pratt was elected as a director of Gander Mountain in August 2005 and named Vice Chairman of the Board in December 2005.

Operations

Gander Mountain offers a wide array of sportswear for men, women, and children, camouflage and field wear, kayaks and canoes.

Gander Mountain sold its mail order business to Cabela's in 1996 with a no-compete clause. In 2007 it won a lawsuit brought by Cabela's to resume online sales. On December 6, 2007, the company announced it purchased boating and watersports catalog company Overton's for $70 million from a private-equity firm. The purchase of Overton's, based in Greenville, North Carolina, helped Gander Mountain's transition back into direct marketing.

In December 2013 Gander Mountain brought suit against Cabelas claiming that the competitor was illegally using domain names related to its business. The lawsuit accuses "Cabela's of violating federal and state statutes as well as common law." Additionally Gander claims that Cabela's is in violation of the federal Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, trademark infringement and trademark dilution.

Locations

As of March 2010 the company had 116 stores operating in 23 states, with 6,600,000 square feet (610,000 m²) of retail space in the continental United States. As of December 2014 the company had 154 stores operating in 26 states.

Gander Mountain's "large-format" stores range in size from 50,000-120,000 square feet and offer customers a unique experience. Physically, and visually, the stores are met with wider shopping aisles, high-joist ceilings, brick and stone accents, log-wrapped columns, and other wilderness related decorations.

Gander Mountain online store officially opened in August 2008.

Gun-Sales Controversies

James Holmes, convicted of the 2012 Aurora shooting in which 12 people were killed and 70 were injured, bought two of the four firearms he used in the attack at Gander Mountain stores.