The surviving Gander Mountain stores will get a new name, CEO Marcus Lemonis said Thursday.
Lemonis tweeted he plans to rebrand the company as “Gander Outdoors” and will award $25,000 to a follower who creates a new logo.
Lemonis tweets updates daily about the future of Gander Mountain’s 162 locations. More than half remain on the chopping block and the survival of some changes from day to day.
Over the weekend, the company announced a nationwide liquidation sale.
Lemonis, who also owns and operates Camping World, the nation’s largest recreational vehicle dealer, took to Twitter Sunday to reiterate the “going-out-of-business” sale only means Gander Mountain will sell off its current inventory.
“I keep seeing reports from news organizations in cities where Gander Mountains exist that all stores are closing and they are not,” he said on Periscope Live Sunday. “All stores are liquidating and the inventory in there is going to go away, but the stores aren’t closing.”
Camping World bid $38 million last week for Gander Mountain’s intellectual property, store leases and its Overton’s boating business, all valued at $390 million.
“What we did not buy is the inventory that’s in all the stores, the distribution center,” Lemonis said. “A group of liquidators bought that.”
“My goal is to open at least 70, remain and keep them operating as Gander Mountain, potentially add an Overton’s boating or Camping World to them, and run them and run a good business,” he added.
While more than half of the stores are on the chopping block, Lemonis said he will continue posting surviving locations on his Twitter feed, however “unorthodox” it may seem. He said Sunday he “will not, under any circumstance” keep stores “without a clear path to profitability.”
As of Friday, the closures seem focused on southeastern and midwestern locations. A full list can be viewed here.
Gander Mountain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections in Minnesota court on March 10, indicating its intention to shutter 32 stores in 11 states and liquidate more than $500 million worth of assets.
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