Aldila Will Be Sold to N.Y. Investment Partnership : Sporting Goods: The No. 1 maker of graphite golf club shafts has grown quickly in recent years. Forstmann Little & Co. is the buyer.
Aldila, the leading U.S. manufacturer of graphite golf club shafts, has signed an agreement to be sold to Forstmann Little & Co., a New York-based investment partnership. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.
Although Rancho Bernardo-based Aldila has been in existence since 1973, the company has grown swiftly over the past three years with an increase in the popularity of graphite-shafted clubs. The shafts, which are made with a mix of graphite polymers, rare-earth metals, plastics and epoxy, are lighter and stronger than traditional steel shafts and enable some golfers to drive balls farther.
The seller of Aldila is a partnership headed by President Gary Barbera and Chairman Vince Gorguze, which acquired the company in 1987. Barbera is a former president of a unit of Oak Industries, and Gorguze is a retired president of Emerson Electric. Barbera, Gorguze and senior vice president of marketing Kim Carpenter will remain with the company.
Aldila officials declined to be interviewed Monday, but said in September that the company employed about 500, and that its sales would exceed $40 million in 1991.
The company supplies about 50% of all graphite golf club shafts to the U.S. market and 30% worldwide. Customers include Taylor Made, Wilson, Spalding and other leading club manufacturers.
Although the market for golf equipment overall has been slowed by the recession, Aldila has benefited from growing market acceptance of graphite shafts, which are often used in conjunction with golf club heads made of metal or plastic composites. The popularity of graphite has grown, despite the fact that it can add $300 or more to the cost of a set of clubs.
Design problems that caused graphite shafts to break too easily in the 1970s and early ‘80s have been worked out, the company said, and Aldila products are now endorsed by professional golfers such as Payne Stewart and Nancy Lopez.
The company also said in September that it intended to branch off into other sporting goods products, including bicycle frames and tennis rackets.
Forstmann Little & Co., which is headed by Ted Forstmann, owns eight companies, including Topps, a sports card and collectibles manufacturer based in New York; General Instrument, a Chicago-based high-technology company whose Videocipher unit is based in San Diego, and Gulfstream Aerospace of Savannah, Ga.
“Aldila has demonstrated outstanding growth over the past several years,” Forstmann Little general partner W. B. Little said in a prepared statement. “Aldila has achieved this dominant position through its technological leadership and low-cost production capabilities.”
