Adelaide footwear company Rossi Boots sells up after 110 years
The family-run Rossi Boots has been sold to a Melbourne fashion group after operating in Adelaide since 1910.
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Adelaide family-run manufacturing company Rossi Boots has sold up after 110 years of putting shoes on the feet of people around the world.
Rossi Boots has been bought by the Melbourne-based holding outfit Propel Group, which runs the well-known Driza-Bone (outerwear) and RB Sellars (rural workwear) brands.
There will be no job losses, according to Rossi managing director Myron Mann, who has been restructuring the company since 2016 with a view to its eventual sale.
“Rossi will be contracted all the work back. We have spoken to the unions, they will still be under the same enterprise agreement,” Mr Mann said.
Rossi has about 40 employees, down from 85, four years ago.
Mr Mann – the only person not be kept on under the new deal that is effective immediately – has led the sale campaign since last November and oversaw the move to smaller and more modern new premises in Kilburn last year.
The Rossiter family, which set up the business in 1910, will be a minority shareholder and will remain involved in the forward direction of the business, he said.
About one-third of Rossi’s manufacturing is done in SA with South-East Asia and Portugal putting out the bulk of the 130,000-to-140,000 pairs of Rossi boots made annually.
The acquisition by the fashion and apparel-focused Propel Group will bring together three iconic Australian and family-owned brands, allowing the group to capitalise on the synergies between them, Propel Group managing director Richard Sellars-Jones said.
“I’m delighted to have the Rossi brand join us and continue its direction of safety meets style as part of the Propel Group.”
“We are looking forward to the next chapter for Rossi Boots,” Paul Rossiter, former chairman and great-grandson of the Rossi founder, Arthur Rossiter, said.
Adelaide-based private investment company, GP Securities, has also joined as a shareholder adding Rossi Boots to its investment portfolio.
No figure has been given for the private transaction.
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