Cotswold Outdoor is a trading brand of Outdoor and Cycle Concepts Limited, who also own the Snow and Rock, Cycle Surgery and Runners Need chains of shops. An

outdoor recreation Outdoor recreation or outdoor activity refers to recreation done outside, most commonly in natural settings. The activities that encompass outdoor recreation vary depending on the physical environment they are being carried out in. These activitie ...

retailer in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

History

Founded in 1974, the company originated in the Cotswolds, and was based in a garage next to the

Cotswold Water Park The Cotswold Water Park is the United Kingdom's largest marl lake system, straddling the Wiltshire–Gloucestershire border, northwest of Cricklade and south of Cirencester. There are 180 lakes, spread over . The park is a mix of nature co ...

from which the founders sold basic camping accessories. Cotswold Outdoor is the recommended retailer for the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

and

the Ramblers The Ramblers is the trading name of the Ramblers Association, Great Britain's leading walking charity. The Ramblers is also a membership organisation with around 100,000 members and a network of volunteers who maintain and protect the path ...

. Cotswold Outdoor has 79 shops across the

, an e-commerce website and a mail order service selling outdoor clothing, camping & climbing equipment, travel clothing and hiking boots. On 26 April 2019, Outdoor and Cycle Concepts Limited applied for a

company voluntary arrangement Under UK insolvency law an insolvent company can enter into a company voluntary arrangement (CVA). The CVA is a form of composition, similar to the personal IVA ( individual voluntary arrangement), where an insolvency procedure allows a compa ...

(CVA) following increased pre-tax losses in a struggling UK retail environment. Outdoor & Cycle Concepts chief executive Greg Nieuwenhuys resigned in March 2019. Jose Ramon Finch Castro joined the board on 1 April 2019 as managing director."

Subsidiaries

Snow and Rock is a chain of skiing and mountaineering shops. It was founded in the early 1980s by Mike Browne, who borrowed £60,000 from the bank using his house as

collateral Collateral may refer to: Business and finance * Collateral (finance), a borrower's pledge of specific property to a lender, to secure repayment of a loan * Marketing collateral, in marketing and sales Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Collate ...

. Browne opened its first shop on Kensington High Street in London. By 2001, there were eight Snow and Rock shops that collectively had net sales of £22million per year. In 2004,

Andrew Brownsword Andrew Douglas Brownsword CBE DL (born 1947) is an English entrepreneur who established the Forever Friends company. He has regularly featured on the Sunday Times Rich List, with an estimated fortune of £190 million. Biography Brownsword att ...

acquired the firm, which then had 11 UK shops, and Browne left the company. In 2010, Brownsword sold the firm to LGV Capital,

Legal & General Legal & General Group plc, commonly known as Legal & General, is a British multinational financial services and asset management company headquartered in London, England. Its products and services include investment management, lifetime mortg ...

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a t ...

subsidiary. At the time of the acquisition Snowit had 35 shops, employed 450, had £65million in revenue the previous year, and owned Cycle Surgery and Runners Need. In 2015, the

PAI Partners PAI Partners is a French private equity firm based in Paris, France. It is one of the oldest firms in the sector, with its origins dating back to Paribas Affaires Industrielles, the historical principal investment activity of Paribas, which sta ...

-owned AS Adventure Group, which owns Cotswold Outdoor, acquired Snow and Rock, Cycle Surgery and Runners Need, which at the time had 46 shops In November 2015, Cotswold Outdoor, Snow and Rock, Cycle Surgery and Runners Need became "one single legal entity called Outdoor and Cycle Concepts".

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.cotswoldoutdoor.com Retail companies of the United Kingdom Retail companies established in 1974