LR Stephenses sell maker of high-end ranges Viking

— Members of the Jack and Witt Stephens families sold Viking Range Corp. of Greenwood, Miss., for $380 million on Monday.

The Stephenses, who owned a majority interest in the oven and kitchen-appliance company, sold Viking to food-service equipment maker Middleby Corp. of Elgin, Ill.

Fred Carl Jr., 64, Viking’s chief executive officer who founded the company in 1984, also is a shareholder in Viking Range, along with other company executives. Carl will remain as chief executive officer “for probably several more years,” he said in a news release.

The Stephens family members first invested in Viking Range in 1992, said Frank Thomas, a spokesman for Little Rock-based investment firm Stephens Inc. Thomas declined to disclose the exact ownership interest held by the Stephens family members or which family members have ownership in Viking.

Viking makes expensive, high-quality residential cooking ranges, ovens, refrigerators and other kitchen appliances. Its custom-made ranges cost $3,500 to $10,000 and more.

Viking has annual revenue of $200 million. Middleby, which is publicly traded on the Nasdaq exchange, has revenue of $990 million. Its shares rose $3.18, or 2.5 percent, to close Wednesday at $131.39.

Viking’s revenue was twice as high in 2006-2007, said Timothy Fitzgerald, Middleby’s chief financial officer, in a teleconference Wednesday. Viking had earnings of $50 million to $60 million at that time, Selim Bassoul, Middleby’s chief executive officer, said during the teleconference.

The decline in sales was primarily because of the recession that ended in 2009, Bassoul said.

“As the recession occurredand that market got hit, [Viking] started cutting back on their expenses,” Bassoul said. “In addition, I think they were slow in innovating those years.”

Middleby first approached Viking when its business was generating more sales, Bassoul said.

“We were a lot smaller at that time,” Bassoul said. “They had a lot bigger company and it was too big of an acquisition for us to buy it.”

One reason why Middleby wanted to buy Viking now was “it was an opportunity to buy the leading brand,” Bassoul said.

“It is the strongest brand in that field, not only in theU.S. but around the world,” Bassoul said of Viking. “Their market share today is around 20 percent [in the U.S.].”

Middleby wasn’t the only company interested in acquiring Viking, FitzGerald said.

“They had other bidders and they opted to select us,” FitzGerald said. “Fred owned the company from the beginning and Stephens has been involved with him for over 20 years. I don’t think they were desperate to sell. They sold because they believed that going forward, they wanted a partner that can grow the [business] and we were selected.” Information for this article was contributed byThe Associated Press.

Business, Pages 21 on 01/03/2013

Upcoming Events