Local online firm Xtremez.com buys Kentucky catalog retailer

Vancouver-based Xtremez.com has purchased a Kentucky catalog retailer that sells gifts and accessories to firefighters and law enforcement.

The purchase of Our Designs marks a new phase in the evolution of Xtremez, which 28-year-old chief executive Adam Stites founded 13 years ago to sell paintball supplies from his parents’ basement.

The Web-based paintball business has done well, and now Xtremez wants to expand its online retailing, Stites said.

“We were looking for retailers that really speak to a niche or a market that’s spread over a large geographic area, that’s passionate about what they do, in the same way that our customers are about paintball,” he said.

On Designs, which sells training aids and gifts to firefighters, paramedics and law enforcement, fit the bill.

“Their emphasis has been on catalogs, and they’ve been slow to make the transition to the Internet,” Stites said. “It is our hope to transition the business from primarily catalog to primarily online.”

Stites declined to provide details about the Our Designs purchase, which closed Tuesday. Xtremez paid the majority of the transaction costs in cash, with a portion still held in a promissory note due to former Our Designs owners Mike and Carol Daugherty.

Revenues at Xtremez are up 8 percent this year over 2007, and are more than $10 million, Stites said, though he would not be more specific. This acquisition will boost revenues another 40 percent, he forecasts.

Two Our Designs 18 employees will be relocated to 1212 W. Fourth Plain Blvd., Vancouver, and the company’s inventory is being shipped cross country to the Xtremez warehouse. Otherwise, Kentucky operations will be shut down.

“We’ll (also) be hiring five to 10 employees in Vancouver,” Stites said. “We’re taking orders, and telling customers that because the business is moving we’ll ship the orders after Oct. 1.”