Co-Founders of Gotcha Sell Major Interest
An apparel industry veteran who joined Gotcha International as vice chairman a year ago has acquired a controlling interest in the Irvine clothing company from the two co-founders and assumed their roles as chairman and chief executive.
Marvin Winkler, 43, said Thursday that he led an investment group that acquired a majority of the privately held surfing apparel maker from co-founders Michael Tomson and Joel Cooper. They are stepping down as chairman and chief executive, respectively.
Terms were not disclosed.
The group had purchased a “substantial interest” in Gotcha last year from the investment firm Merrill Lynch & Co., Winkler said.
Cooper, 43, and Tomson, 40, will remain with the company and retain a small ownership stake, Winkler said.
The pair co-founded Gotcha in 1978 in a garage. The company now has 180 employees and annual sales of $90 million. Its flagship Gotcha line of surfing-themed T-shirts and shorts is sold in surf shops as well as department stores such as Robinsons-May and Nordstrom.
The firm also sells MCD apparel, a brand started six years ago that focuses on surfing trunks and snowboarding apparel sold exclusively in specialty surf and sportswear shops.
Last year, the company launched the fast-growing GirlStar girl’s clothing division.
Cooper will head the GirlStar operations and the firm’s domestic and international licensing. Tomson will lead the “overall creative direction” of the Gotcha and MCD lines, Winkler said.
The management restructuring, he said, will allow Cooper and Tomson to focus on the core activities that “launched and sustained” the company, while Winkler focuses on the “strategic direction of the business and future acquisitions and expansion.”
Winkler said expansion might include the purchase of rights to other brands, such as the company’s recent acquisition of the Blue Hawaii name. He also plans to move into the youth golf market and hopes to do more licensing deals.
“I believe the company should be a diversified portfolio of brands and licenses and different marketplaces at the same time,” he said.
Before joining Gotcha, Winkler was chairman of clothing maker Signal Apparel Co. In the 1980s, his firm American Marketing Works sold apparel carrying brand names that he licensed from Walt Disney Co., Warner Bros., Gold’s Gym and others. American Marketing was sold to Signal in 1994.
