Revision Military Technologies has sold its Essex Junction protective eyewear subsidiary to a pair of private equity firms. The original company, which employs 200 people in Newport, plans to keep and rename the rest of the business, which makes helmets, armor, battery packs and other items at several locations.
The sale includes Revision’s 53,000-square-foot plant in Essex Junction, which employs about 130 people. Kelly Krayewsky, a Revision spokesperson who will stay with the new eyewear company, said that the new owners plan to keep the plant, which includes design, development, assembly, warehousing and distribution, in Essex Junction and expect to add staff there.
The Montreal-based Revision decided to sell the protective eyewear business to focus on its other products. It owns facilities in Newport, Vermont; Montreal; Ottawa; Portsmouth, New Hampshire; the United Kingdom; and Southborough, Massachusetts. Helmets are made at the Newport facility, Krayewsky said.
“The remaining company wants to focus on growth and investments and needs capital,” said Krayewsky.
The privately owned company announced plans in May 2018 to set up an operational headquarters in Portsmouth, saying the New Hampshire site provided better access to employees and to air travel. It had 300 workers at that time. It’s building a new laboratory there now and Krayewsky said the company expects the New Hampshire site to be a growth center. Revision chose Portsmouth because there are a lot of defense contractors in that area.
“It’s a little closer to a lot of our customers, and to the research labs in Natick, Massachusetts,” she said. “And also a talent pool down there of engineers and people who are focused on lot of the specialty work we are doing.”
At the time of the announcement in May 2018, Revision CEO and majority owner Jonathan Blanshay also told the Bangor Daily News that that company had chosen New Hampshire because of its low taxes.
Revision often posted jobs in New Hampshire, Montreal and Vermont, she said, looking for workers willing to move between the three facilities. She added that the company is committed to Vermont and its Newport facility, which is focused on manufacturing.
“We’re involved in the Vermont Futures Project and other initiatives around the state that are really trying to foster talent here,” she said. “We know it’s a challenge.”
The buyers of the Essex Junction subsidiary are ASGARD Partners & Co., a private equity firm in New York, and Merit Capital Partners, a private equity firm in Chicago.
Revision started in Montreal as an eyewear company in 2001, and is now a primary supplier of protective eyewear to military forces around the globe, including the U.S. Army, British army, German and Swiss armed forces, ASGARD said. Blanshay is the chairman of the board and primary shareholder, although there are other investors.
“With a renewed focus on protective eyewear and dedicated capital resources, we believe Revision is well-positioned for growth in the years to come,” said Karan Rai, founder and managing partner of ASGARD.
