Chattanooga-based PlayCore Holdings Inc., a designer, manufacturer and marketer of a broad range of play and recreation products, has acquired online distributor BYO Recreation.
Headquartered in St. Augustine, Fla., BYO Recreation provides playgrounds, sports equipment, site amenities, and dog parks through its web store.
Commercial customers seeking online purchasing solutions are a growing area of the market, said PlayCore CEO Bob Farnsworth on Monday.
“With the ownership of BYO Recreation transitioning and our successful strategic partnership, it is a natural progression to add this distribution to our portfolio,” he said in a statement.
BYO will continue operations through www.byoplayground.com. BYO has 33 employees.
The newest acquisition by PlayCore puts its headcount at about 1,100. The company has said it has more than 100 people working at its Chattanooga headquarters and several hundred at a Fort Payne, Ala., manufacturing plant.
BYO Recreation began 16 years ago. Over the years, it has added different recreational product lines, such as park, aquatic and sports equipment. These additions have allowed BYO to become one of the most comprehensive recreational equipment suppliers in the world, according to PlayCore.
PlayCore has broadened its business by buying companies that make a wide variety of equipment and goods such as grandstands and bleachers, timing and scoring systems for athletic venues and bike storage systems.
In 2014, New York City-based Sentinel Capital Partners, a private equity firm focusing on middle market investments, bought PlayCore. Irving Place Capital, another New York private equity business, sold the Chattanooga company after owning the firm for seven years.