Sentinel Capital Partners, a private equity firm that invests in promising companies, recently announced its acquisition of GSM Outdoors, a leading provider of technologically-advanced, branded accessories for the hunting, sport shooting, and outdoor enthusiast markets. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Headquartered in Grand Prairie, Texas, GSM has a broad portfolio of innovative hunting and sport shooting products sold under highly recognized brand names. GSM’s topnotch brands include Stealth Cam (technologically advanced game scouting cameras; photo below); Walker’s (hearing protection and enhancement devices); Cyclops (specialty outdoor lighting); Western Rivers (game calls); American Hunter (game feeders); HME (hunting knives and tools); and SME (targets and related accessories). GSM sells through a diverse mix of channels, including online retailers, sporting goods stores, mass merchants, outdoorsman retailers, farm and fleet stores, and distributors across the U.S. and Canada.

“GSM has an extremely passionate, talented, and committed management team that has built a strong platform of coveted brands,” said John Van Sickle, a partner at Sentinel. “GSM is an industry leader and innovator and is driving growth through developing innovative, high-quality products. GSM is positioned as a vendor-of-choice with leading retailers and has a highly engaged consumer enthusiast following. Importantly, GSM’s management has created a culture of success and has positioned GSM as a consolidator of choice in the large and highly-fragmented hunting and sport shooting accessories market.”

“We are very pleased to partner with Sentinel as we execute the next phase of our growth,” said GSM CEO Eddie Castro. “We have an incredibly committed and competitive culture and are passionate about our brands and the customers we serve. Our enthusiast end-user base is loyal and growing. We plan to leverage Sentinel’s extensive experience investing in specialty consumer businesses and making add-on acquisitions to continue our strong growth trajectory.”

The past 12 months have been highly productive for Sentinel. Besides acquiring GSM Outdoors, Sentinel made four other platform investments: Captain D’s, a leading restaurant operator in the QSR seafood sector; MB2 Dental Solutions, a rapidly-growing dental service organization with a unique physician-centric ownership model; Nekoosa, a leading manufacturer of specialty paper and film products used in the graphics and commercial print markets; and UBEO, a leading provider of document processing services in Texas.

During this same period, Sentinel also completed exits from Huddle House, a franchisor of family dining restaurants in the Southeast; National Spine & Pain Centers, a leading service provider to interventional pain management physicians; PlayCore, the leading North American supplier of play, park, and recreation products; RotoMetrics, the leading global provider of precision rotary cutting tools; and WellSpring Consumer Healthcare, a North American marketer of OTC health brands.

About GSM Outdoors

Founded in 1999, GSM Outdoors specializes in developing and marketing innovative products for the hunting, sport shooting, and outdoor enthusiast market. GSM owns several well-known brands including Stealth Cam, Walker’s, Cyclops, Western Rivers, American Hunter, HME, and SME.  GSM’s strong focus on innovation, product development, rigorous quality control, and customer support has earned it a reputation for delivering top-quality outdoor gear backed by industry leading customer service. For more information, visit www.gsmoutdoors.com.

About Sentinel Capital Partners

Sentinel specializes in buying and building businesses at the lower end of the midmarket in the United States and Canada in partnership with management. Sentinel targets aerospace and defense, business services, consumer, distribution, food and restaurants, franchising, healthcare, and industrial businesses. Sentinel invests in management buyouts, recapitalizations, corporate divestitures, and going-private transactions of established businesses with EBITDA of up to $65 million Sentinel also invests in special situations, including balance sheet restructurings and operational turnarounds. For more information, visit www.sentinelpartners.com.