Tent maker Rekord Structures grows workforce, manufacturing space

Rekord Structures recently acquired Rapid Deployable Systems (RDS), which makes rapidly deployable tents as shown here. (RDS)

US-based tent manufacturer Rekord Structures nearly doubled the size of its US workforce with its recent acquisition of the Eureka! Military and Commercial Tents product lines from Johnson Outdoors, according to a Rekord official.

The Eureka business, which has been renamed Rapid Deployable Systems (RDS), employs about 70 people in Binghamton, New York, while Rekord's existing facility in Washington, Georgia, has about 80 employees, Rekord business development manager Yuliia Nevmerzhytska told Janes on 11 July. The acquisition, along with an ongoing addition to the Georgia facility, will more than double Rekord's total US manufacturing space to almost 300,000 sq ft (27,870 m²).

Rekord, which has focused on large tents used for such military purposes as aircraft hangars, command centres, and dining facilities, as well as related equipment such as power generators, purchased the Eureka business for USD13.7 million in March to round out its portfolio with rapidly deployable tents, as well as small products, such as one-, two-, and four-soldier tents. Johnson said it sold the business to focus on recreational camping.

Nevmerzhytska said that Eureka is also benefitting from the transaction. For example, Eureka, which focuses on sewing and welding fabrics and does not have the machinery to produce metal tent frames at its New York facility, can now have the frames made at Rekord's Georgia facility instead of outsourcing them. “There is a synergy between both companies,” she said.