With all the yoga, snack, coffee and office supplies, Boxwood Partners was running out of space.
The Richmond-based private equity firm recently leased 2,000 square feet in Shockoe Slip above the Irish bar Sine – which is just a stone’s throw from its headquarters. The new office houses operations of its bevy of online businesses.
Pat Galleher, a partner at Boxwood, said the new space is home to about a handful of employees from its Shockoe Commerce Group, Boxwood’s portfolio company that now owns five online businesses. Galleher said he’s adding five to seven more employees there.
“It’s a pretty good size company now with substantial revenue and good profit,” Galleher said. “The yoga business is booming.”
Boxwood has been expanding the holdings of Shockoe Commerce Group over the past few years.
It began in 2008 when it acquired Coffee Wholesale USA and the related website. Then in October 2009, SnackWarehouse.com, a site that sells gluten-free and organic snacks, was launched.
Last July it launched OfficeSaver.com to try to steal some thunder from the likes of Staples and OfficeMax.
Boxwood and SCG then jumped headfirst into the yoga business in late 2010. In November it bought Hartford, Conn.-based YogaDirect.com for an undisclosed sum. Then in December it purchased Yoga Accessories.
Among the five companies there are about 25 employees, including three in India and at warehouses in New Jersey, Tennessee and Nevada.
The people filling the new Shockoe Slip space include staff for the call center, marketing and sales for the yoga and coffee businesses.
“We’re trying to hire more people,” Galleher said. “We’re trying to fill up the Slip here with employees.”
Boxwood signed a three-year lease on the new space, which is managed by Shockoe Properties.
Boxwood likes what it is seeing from its yoga investments so much that it plans to launch its own line of yoga products, to be called Dragonfly Fitness. The line, which will be marketed through the company’s two yoga websites, will sell products such as yoga mats, blocks and balls. The company is even considering creating a yoga apparel line.
“We’re not into apparel right now,” Galleher said. “But we’re researching it.”
Michael Schwartz is a BizSense reporter. Please send news tips to [email protected].
With all the yoga, snack, coffee and office supplies, Boxwood Partners was running out of space.
The Richmond-based private equity firm recently leased 2,000 square feet in Shockoe Slip above the Irish bar Sine – which is just a stone’s throw from its headquarters. The new office houses operations of its bevy of online businesses.
Pat Galleher, a partner at Boxwood, said the new space is home to about a handful of employees from its Shockoe Commerce Group, Boxwood’s portfolio company that now owns five online businesses. Galleher said he’s adding five to seven more employees there.
“It’s a pretty good size company now with substantial revenue and good profit,” Galleher said. “The yoga business is booming.”
Boxwood has been expanding the holdings of Shockoe Commerce Group over the past few years.
It began in 2008 when it acquired Coffee Wholesale USA and the related website. Then in October 2009, SnackWarehouse.com, a site that sells gluten-free and organic snacks, was launched.
Last July it launched OfficeSaver.com to try to steal some thunder from the likes of Staples and OfficeMax.
Boxwood and SCG then jumped headfirst into the yoga business in late 2010. In November it bought Hartford, Conn.-based YogaDirect.com for an undisclosed sum. Then in December it purchased Yoga Accessories.
Among the five companies there are about 25 employees, including three in India and at warehouses in New Jersey, Tennessee and Nevada.
The people filling the new Shockoe Slip space include staff for the call center, marketing and sales for the yoga and coffee businesses.
“We’re trying to hire more people,” Galleher said. “We’re trying to fill up the Slip here with employees.”
Boxwood signed a three-year lease on the new space, which is managed by Shockoe Properties.
Boxwood likes what it is seeing from its yoga investments so much that it plans to launch its own line of yoga products, to be called Dragonfly Fitness. The line, which will be marketed through the company’s two yoga websites, will sell products such as yoga mats, blocks and balls. The company is even considering creating a yoga apparel line.
“We’re not into apparel right now,” Galleher said. “But we’re researching it.”
Michael Schwartz is a BizSense reporter. Please send news tips to [email protected].
We were represented by Gareth Jones and Jimmy Appich of Jones LaSalle.
We highly recommend them. They worked incredibly hard in finding us the right space in the Slip.