A History of Gander Mountain

Gander Mountain Company operates the nation's largest retail network of stores specializing in hunting, fishing, camping, boating, and outdoor lifestyle products and services. Gander Mountain stores offer a unique retail experience through our combination of a broad assortment of competitively priced outdoor equipment, technical and casual apparel and footwear, outdoor accessories, and expert services, including gunsmith, archery, ATV and marine services. Our stores feature national, regional and local brands as well as the company's owned brands. Our store associates’ extensive product knowledge and outdoor-related experience enable us to provide unmatched customer service. Nearly all of our stores have a Gander Mountain Lodge, which is an in-store meeting room where we provide hunter and firearms safety classes, outdoor-skills seminars and which we make available for community use. Focused on our "We Live Outdoors®" culture, Gander Mountain dedicates itself to creating outdoor memories. At the end of 2007, there were 115 conveniently located Gander Mountain outdoor lifestyle stores in 23 states - Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin. In December 2007, we acquired Overton's, Inc., a leading Internet and catalog marketing company targeting recreational boaters. Overton's product line is extensive, ranging from wakeboards, water skis, wetsuits and related water sports accessories, to marine electronics, boat covers, lifts and seats, maintenance and safety products, apparel, footwear, and other marine accessories. The company's products are sold through a multi-channel approach that includes catalogs, a Website www.overtons.com and retail showrooms. Gander Mountain, headquartered in St. Paul, MN, was founded in 1960. In April 2004, we completed our initial public offering of common stock which is listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol: “GMTN”. Overton’s, headquartered in Greenville, NC, was founded in 1970. The Gander Mountain brand has over a 45 year heritage of strong appeal and relevance to consumers who participate in outdoor sports and recreational activities. The Gander Mountain brand was founded in Wilmot, Wisconsin, in 1960 as a catalog operation, which over time was augmented with retail stores.

Gander Mountain's History Timeline

Bob Sturgis, a former Field & Stream buyer for Marshall Fields & Company, founded Gander Mountain in 1960. Sturgis named the company after Wisconsin’s Gander Mountain, one of his favorite outdoor spots. He used a small store in Wilmot, Wisconsin, as his headquarters and marketed shooting supplies to gun dealers through mail order. He soon began mailing catalogs directly to consumers across the country, gradually building a strong image as a dependable supplier to hunters and other serious outdoor enthusiasts.

Holiday Sports began in the 1960s as a part of the Minneapolis-based Holiday Stores, an innovative group of retail stores that combined a wide selection of groceries and merchandise into one superstore. The concept had significant name recognition and was perceived as a low-price, limited-service operator with breadth and depth in product lines. Holiday was recognized as a leader in hunting and fishing equipment, offering a selection that was among the largest in the Twin Cities area. Holiday operated four freestanding Holiday Sports stores in addition to a number of other retail operations.

Construction begins for Gander’s new warehouse, general offices and retail stores.

Burger Brothers, Bud and Ted Burger founded Burger Brothers in Edina, MN, in 1970, when they recognized the need for stores outfitting the serious outdoors enthusiasts. The chain has upscale product and pricing perception with an emphasis on customer service and product knowledge.

The first new Gander Mountain retail concept store in 30 years opened in Appleton, WI in 1991.

The four Holiday Sports store were organized into a separate sporting goods retail operation. As Holiday acquired other sporting good stores, they were incorporated into this unit.

Holiday companies acquired all five stores in the Burger Brothers chain.

All Holiday sporting good retail stores were converted to Gander Mountain stores. Today, the Fridley, MN Gander Mountain is the only remaining converted Holiday Sports location. In February of 1997, Gander Mountain was reborn as a 26-store chain created from a combination of the Old Gander Mountain, Inc. retail chain, Holiday Sports and Burger Brothers.

Gander Mountain opened a new 225,000 square-foot distribution center in December 2000. Located outside of Indianapolis, this distribution center was poised to accommodate Gander Mountain’s planned growth throughout the Northeast United States.

Mark Baker joined the Gander Mountain team as Chief Executive Officer. Baker quickly prepared the company for the next phase of growth. Mark’s extensive retail background includes a tremendously successful tenure with Home Depot from 1996 to 2001, serving as Executive vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Merchandising Officer from April 1999 to 2001. Mark joined Gander Mountain because he recognized the significant opportunity to build upon Gander Mountain’s distinctive brand in the highly fragmented outdoor lifestyle market, a retail niche with no national player.

Under Mark Baker’s leadership, Gander Mountain unleashed an aggressive growth campaign, opening 10 stores in 2003. Gander Mountain entered new markets including New York, Virginia, Texas, Colorado, North Dakota and Kentucky.

Gander Mountain Company completed a successful Initial Public Offering of its stock in May 2004. Mark Baker continues his leadership with Gander Mountain opening 19 stores in 2004.

Gander Mountain opened 19 stores - expanding our market into 4 more states, Arkansas, Kansas, Maryland and North Carolina. And we are still growing!

Once again Gander Mountain was on the move… opening 8 new stores and expanding into 4 new states: Florida, West Virginia, Tennessee and Alabama. At the end of 2006 Gander had reached 105 stores in 22 states. Click here to locate a store near you.