Fresh Off IPO, Consumer Specialist Seeks $300M

Firm: Goode Partners

Fund: Goode Consumer Fund II LP

Target: $300M

Placement Agents: Champlain Advisors (U.S.); Evercore Partners (Europe)

Goode Partners LLC, the consumer-focused buyout shop that recently helped take Skullcandy Inc. public, is seeking capital for its second fund, a source familiar with the effort told Buyouts.

The New York-based firm is seeking $300 million. Champlain Advisors LLC, a fund placement firm, is helping it raise capital in the United States. The firm has also retained Evercore Partners to help it raise capital from European investors, the source said.

Goode Partners started raising the fund about three months ago, but most investors wanted to see how Skullcandy, a maker of colorful branded audio headphones, performed in its debut, this source said. The IPO marks the firm’s second liquidity event, the other being a dividend recap in May of Chuy’s, a chain of restaurants in Texas serving “home-cooked” Mexican food. The firm has not yet had a full exit, although the company recently filed for an IPO.

Skullcandy raised $188 million on July 20 after pricing its shares at $20 each, above the expected range of $17 to $19. Its shares traded as high as $23.40 per share in the first day but closed at $14.87 a share on Aug. 8, the first day of trading after Standard & Poor’s lowered the United States credit rating. Goode Partners, which invested an undisclosed amount in Skullcandy in 2008, sold 1.08 million shares in the IPO and retains an 8.1 percent stake, according to the company’s prospectus.

Goode Partners raised $225 million in commitments for its 2007-vintage first fund. That fund is pretty much spent for new investments, although it still has some cash for follow-on investments and other needs at portfolio companies.

The firm, which also has an office in Arcadia, Calif., targets consumer brands and services, retail, restaurants and direct marketing. Its portfolio also includes AllSaints, a London-based retailer of fashion apparel and accessories, and Bowlmor Lanes, a New York-based operator of upscale bowling alleys.

The firm was started in 2005 by David Oddi, a former partner at Saunders Karp & Megrue; Ron Beegle, the former chairman of Global Consumer Retail Investors, a consulting firm; and Joe Ferreira, the former CEO of Woodclyffe Group LLC, a consulting firm. The firm has five senior investment professionals and four advisory partners, according to its Web site.