Allen Edmonds Changes Private Equity Hands

The private equity firm Brentwood Associates has won the bidding war for the Allen Edmonds Corporation, the high-end men’s shoemaker, ending a sale process that included suitors like Men’s Wearhouse.

Brentwood, based in Los Angeles, bought the company from another private equity firm, Goldner Hawn Johnson & Morrison, for about $180 million, according to a person briefed on the deal who was not authorized to speak publicly. Goldner Hawn, which is based in Minneapolis, purchased Allen Edmonds in 2006 for about $100 million.

“In many ways the Allen Edmonds brand belongs to its customers,” Jack Morrison, managing director of Goldner Hawn, said in a statement on Tuesday announcing the acquisition. “We understood from the beginning that Allen Edmonds’s customers value the brand a great deal, enough to pass it on from generation to generation.”

Steve Moore, a Brentwood partner, said in the statement: “The Allen Edmonds brand fits perfectly with our strategy of investing in category-defining brands with exceptional customer loyalty.”

Men’s Wearhouse, itself a takeover target from Jos. A. Bank, courted Allen Edmonds as recently as late last month.

“We had significant interest in the company, which was very gratifying,” Paul Grangaard, the president and chief executive of Allen Edmonds, said in a phone interview on Tuesday. Mr. Grangaard took up his post in 2008 and recommitted to the company’s strategy of making its products in the United States.

The company will remain committed to that strategy under new ownership, according to the press release, and to its manufacturing operation in Port Washington, Wis. Allen Edmonds has been making shoes in the area since its founding in 1922. Its shoes have been worn by the likes of Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.

Mr. Grangaard made assurances that his company’s leadership team would stay in place after the transition. While he expects “significant fine-tuning” from the new owners, Mr. Grangaard said, he does not anticipate important shifts in strategy.

“It’s a little bit like golf,” Mr. Grangaard said. “We’re going to play the game from tee to green the way we play it, but we’re going to work on our short game a little harder.”

The investment bank Robert W. Baird & Company and the law firm Faegre Baker Daniels represented Goldner Hawn, while the Greenberg Traurig law firm represented Brentwood.