BeaverFit, defence contractor and custom fitness equipment manufacturer, officially merged its regionally-owned and operated UK and USA branches into one global company in June 2024.
Now jointly owned by the original founders, father and son Jim and Tom Beaver, and the North America founders, former Navy riverines Alex Roodhouse and Mike Taylor, the brand aims to unlock global efficiencies and company growth by enabling one team, one fight, in all regions of the world.
“This is a unique opportunity to have two different parts of the world working together and growing the brand and product lines,” Tom Beaver said, noting the merger will bring specialised product development and expertise from one region to the other, and vice versa. The merger also includes UK subsidiaries of the business in Australia, Europe and the Middle East.
Roodhouse said customers either won’t notice a difference or they’ll see a positive change due to increased UK/USA collaboration across engineering, sales, product, project management and marketing channels. “It’s the same consistent brand and product with behind-the-scenes changes to product development, synergy and efficiency.”
And although they’ve merged globally, BeaverFit remains committed to in-country manufacturing – continuing to be proudly British-, American-, and Australian-made for customers in each respective region. Additionally, customers won’t suddenly be handed off to a rep outside of their region unless it makes reasonable sense for the customer to be serviced locally; such as a US military unit in Europe working with a BeaverFit UK project manager.
“We’re doubling resources without increasing workload,” Taylor said. “This will lead to even more wins across the board.”
‘Winning Matters’ – a motto commonly used throughout the company – is evident this year as BeaverFit continues to meet partners in new ways. As BeaverFit UK is preparing to deliver more than 400 container gyms to the Bundeswehr, the German Armed Forces, BeaverFit USA competes for an Army contract that could lend them a role in building and outfitting more than 100 Soldier Performance Readiness Centres worldwide.
Meanwhile, the commercial side of the business booms as an increasing number of fitness studios, gyms, college and university campuses, apartment complexes, and more, realise the potential to create their ideal training spaces through BeaverFit’s custom manufacturing capabilities.
Bottom line, there’s no shortage of work or opportunity for this global company to get after.
“We’re all beavers and we’re all eager to make it work,” Jim Beaver joked. “And we’re going to help each other a lot better as one company versus two.”