CLAY — Bauer Performance Sports Ltd. (TSX: BAU) will take a shot at expanding manufacturing in the Syracuse area after completing a lacrosse power play and acquiring a Clay–based helmet maker.

Exeter, N.H.–based Bauer paid $64 million for Cascade Helmets Holdings, Inc. in a deal that closed June 29. The transaction allows Bauer to jump head long into lacrosse helmet sales, a category in which it did not previously participate.

Bauer produces ice hockey, roller hockey, and lacrosse equipment and apparel. Cascade makes women’s lacrosse eyewear, field hockey eyewear, whitewater helmets, rescue helmets, and hockey helmets, in addition to lacrosse helmets.

“Cascade has a fantastic brand in lacrosse, has a dominant market share in the helmet category,” says Kevin Davis, president and CEO of Bauer Performance Sports Ltd. “And they have great technology, both for lacrosse and hockey helmets, in addition to a remarkable manufacturing operation where they can turn around custom lacrosse helmets in 48 hours.”

Bauer plans to keep Cascade’s manufacturing operation at the acquired firm’s current headquarters at 4697 Crossroads Park Drive in Clay, Davis says. Cascade leases 72,000 square feet and employs between 60 and 70 people there. It leases the facility from U.R. Best Resort, Inc., according to records from Onondaga County’s Office of Real Property Tax Services.

Cascade is currently recruiting for open positions in Clay, according to Davis, who declined to say how many staff positions are available. In addition to lacrosse helmets, Cascade produces a line of hockey helmets it developed with former National Hockey League player Mark Messier.

Bauer plans to start producing Bauer-branded hockey helmets in Clay. Other manufacturing expansions are in store for the location, Davis says.

“There’s nothing else that I want to mention, but I would by no means limit it to helmets,” he says.

Cascade’s Clay facility is the second manufacturing location for Bauer. The New Hampshire–based company also makes equipment at a facility in Saint-Jérôme, Quebec, which is northeast of Montreal. Before acquiring Cascade, Bauer had about 400 employees.

Bauer financed the Cascade deal, which was a stock sale, using a syndicate of lenders led by GE Capital, according to Davis. It also sold some public shares, he adds. 

The company did not use a broker in the deal. It enlisted the international audit, tax, and advisory firm KPMG LLP for accounting, Davis says.

Cascade had been owned by North Castle Partners, a private-equity firm based in Greenwich, Conn. North Castle, which first acquired a controlling interest in Cascade in December 2007, doubled the manufacturer’s sales during its ownership, it said in a news release.

“We believe North Castle’s experience in sports, fitness, and recreation, in partnership with Cascade’s exceptional leadership team, has created a company that is well-positioned to capitalize on the wide range of opportunities the company will have as part of Bauer Performance Sports,” North Castle Managing Director Alison Minter said in the release. She did not respond to a request for further comment by The Central New York Business Journal’s press deadline.

Cascade generated $22 million in revenue in 2011, Davis says. He declined to disclose projections for 2012.

Bauer produced $306.1 million in revenue in its 2011 fiscal year, which ended May 31, 2011. That was up 18.9 percent from the 2010 fiscal year, when the company generated $257.4 million.

Davis says the company’s revenue totaled $362 million in its most recent 12-month accounting period, which ended in February 2012. He cannot share Bauer’s future sales projections, he adds.

The manufacturer is not making any changes to Cascade’s leadership at its Clay facility, Davis says.

“The folks that were running that facility and are managing that company on a day-to-day basis are all continuing with the company,” he says. “What we have talked about to the folks in [Clay] is that the idea is to grow, expand, and leverage that facility for all the great work that they’ve already done.”