Financial challenges are nothing new for Kevin McComas, CFO of Remington Products Co. From ESOP transactions to securing private equity lenders to starting up an Asian manufacturing plant, McComas has been instrumental in the success of the company.
After joining Remington Products in 1996, McComas worked on a long-term growth and survival plan for the then 50-year-old company. The idea was not only to automate operations but to secure an Asian plant that would ensure superior productivity over its competitors. McComas make seven trips to Vietnam over six months and succeeded in establishing a subsidiary company in an ultramodern facility that allows Remington the flexibility to price domestically or overseas.
Then, in 2008, after two years of preparation, two ESOP transactions were completed. In the first, 30 percent of the company was sold to the ESOP trust. After the second, McComas and the three other shareholders sold their interest and made the company 100 percent employee owned. This required convincing the sellers that not taking cash out of the business and instead holding a promissory note was the path to the future.
However, this brought the leverage of the company to negative equity, so when the opportunity to purchase a company came along, Remington’s lender offered to fund less than a third of the purchase price. So McComas found a lender for half of the purchase price and went to the private equity market to raise the rest. The deal close in 2010 and it’s been instrumental in the company’s short-term profitability and long-term growth strategy.
McComas has also been instrumental in acquiring other companies to address weaknesses identified during the strategic planning phase of the organization.
How to reach: Remington Products Co., (800) 491-1571 or www.remprod.com
