The French website apenea.fr announced the Aqua Lung takeover of OMER and Sproasub original article. Below is the article translated in English.
Omersub, the well known brand in the spearfishing equipment market, was bought out by another famous company specializing in scuba equipment: AquaLung. Marco and Claudio Ciceri wished to retire and on July 31st 2013 they found a buyer. They have entrusted the future of the brands OMER and Sporasub to AquaLung.
Market leader in recreational diving with a solid positioning in the military and professional sectors, the brand also known as "The Spirotechnique" had kept away from the spearfishing and freediving market. Besides some fitness and swimwear oriented products in the AquaSphere gamme, there was no place for freediving or snorkeling, a constant growing sector...so you can imagine how far it was from spearfishing considered to be too controversial.
With the acquisition of Omer, the "100% scuba" period has just finished, setting a milestone in the market. A first ideological shift, as claimed by Jean-Luc Diainville, CEO of Aqua Lung Europe / Middle East / Africa: "The practice of this sport has evolved, the regulations are going in the right direction making spearfishing a more responsible activity." The change is also commercial, since the addition of a brand already known and consolidated to the Aqua Lung portfolio, allows us to face a market in which we had never entered before, with strong cards in hand. "We want to diversify, says Jean-Luc Diainville, but we will not revolutionize Omersub because the company has been very well managed. The brand has also signed a greatly appreciated partnership with Umberto Pelizzari.
For the record, Omersub was created in Italy in the late 1970s by Valerio Grassi with, among its shareholders, the firearms manufacturer Beretta. In 1993, the brand is partially took over by Ciceri family, owner of the giant Beta Tools, manufacturing professional tools. In 1994, it completely takes over, separating itself from Mares equipement owning Sporasub and leaving the distribution of the latter in Italy. The following year, Sporasub falls into the hands of the HTM group which holds Mares. Omersub tries a breakthrough in technical scuba equipment. Despite his mastery of the industrial processes it turns into a failure. The company will then focus on its core business, consolidating its position and becoming one of the major players in the industry. Finally, in 2008, Omer buys out Sporasub from Mares to place it in the high quality range.
Marco and Claudio Ciceri will lead for about a year to make the transition easier. They seem very happy to have sold their brands to Aqua Lung, a large group that will facilitate the settlement of Omersub and Sporasub in different countries.
saw some great bottom though